


The Others

by NicoNightingale



Series: The Others [2]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Developing Friendships, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Hogwarts AU, Self-Discovery, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 46,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23325082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicoNightingale/pseuds/NicoNightingale
Summary: Following an accident that involved her beloved younger sister, the crown princess of Arendelle grew to believe she was born cursed. At the summer after her eleventh birthday, however, she receives the visit of a man in strange robes, who invites her to study at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.This story follows Elsa's life in Hogwarts as she discovers that magic is no curse and starts learning how to love herself.
Relationships: Anna & Elsa (Disney), Elsa (Disney) & Nymphadora Tonks, Elsa (Disney) & Original Character(s), Nymphadora Tonks & Original Character(s)
Series: The Others [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857121
Comments: 13
Kudos: 44





	1. The Welcoming Hat

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling. Frozen belongs to Disney.
> 
> This is the second fic in the series set in this Frozen/Harry Potter crossover universe, covering from the first to the third years at Hogwarts. 
> 
> The tags were changed because I chose to divide the story into several fics (or else, this one would be gigantic).

When, on her eleventh birthday, the crown princess of Arendelle walked into the throne room to discover an elderly man standing in front of her parents, she hadn't thought much of it. Although he was dressed in strange robes and wearing the longest beard Elsa had ever seen in her life, a great number of eccentric characters often came to see the King and Queen. As they had been speaking in English, the girl first regarded him as an ambassador.

However, when the man, Albus Dumbledore, turned to look at her for the first time, Elsa knew right away that she had been wrong. There was something in his eyes—something magical—and, trying to decipher it, the girl barely listened to his very first words to her, much to her parents' exasperation. “You are a witch,” he repeated, much to the princess' astonishment, and proceeded to tell her about how she got a place in his school of magic, located in Scotland.

Elsa was, perhaps, the only muggle-born in Hogwarts at that time who had tried to reject the invitation. All the stories she had heard from other students told her astonishment was a rather common feeling at the discovery of a magical world just within their grasp, but it was always followed by wonder and joy. The princess of Arendelle, however, felt only shame and disgust; ever since the accident, three years prior, she had decided she wanted to have nothing to do with magic.

If it weren't her parents, she would have never set her feet on the castle. Upset about her response and eager to have someone teaching her how to control her magic, they were adamant about her enrollment in Hogwarts. It was the answer to their prays, her father had told her. They were lucky that Dumbledore had taken notice on her, considering that Arendelle was far from the school's territory and foreign students were rare enough in there even among magical families. 

Helpless against her parents' demand, Elsa had seen no option but to do as she was told. The girl didn't doubt that she would soon be back, however. Her parents' advisors—clueless about her magic and the nature of Hogwarts—were outraged by the notion of sending their young crown princess to a foreign school when they had very good schools and tutors within the kingdom. They were still to find a law that allowed them to interfere with Elsa's education in that particular situation, but the girl had no doubt they would soon figure out a way to bring her back.

“Why are you so against it?” Her mother asked her once with a frown; neither she nor the king could understand the reason Elsa wasn't excited about meeting boys and girls who were just as magical as she was. The girl, however, just shrugged. The thought of nurturing the exact thing that had her little sister, the person she loved more than life itself, almost killed was incomprehensible to her; she would much rather eradicate it. 

Elsa couldn't understand why her parents were in favor of the study of magic when it had brought them nothing but sorrow. She still remembered the deep concern and grief in her mother's eyes as the royal family stood in front of the trolls, praying that they would be able to help Anna. The crown princess had never seen her bubbly five-year-old sister so still, frail, cold. No, the only knowledge Elsa wished to acquire at that point was how to get rid of her magic.

Anna. As the girl entered the grand entrance doors of the castle, it was all she could think about. _She would love it here_. Because the younger princess had adored magic from the day she was born. Elsa was only three years old by then, but she would never forget the wonder in her sister's eyes when she looked at the tiny snowflakes the girl had created just for her. 

Yes, Anna would have loved studying Hogwarts. She would have appreciated every single one of Elsa's school books; not only the content in each chapter, but its entire craft. The dim light of the candles—because there seemed to be no place for electricity in the school—wouldn't have been intimidating at all, she would have thought of them as an invitation to an adventure. And the moving and talking paintings— if Anna was indeed an art enthusiast, like her tutor and her parents had told her, Elsa was sure she would be beyond words if she set her eyes on them. 

While the other students seemed to grow unease and excited as they approached the teachers' table and stopped in front of a singing hat, Elsa was deep in her thoughts. She had to stop herself from giggling at the thought of Anna's reaction to the great hall, a place that screamed “magic” more than anything she had ever done in her life. Perhaps, the girl mused, she could send a letter to her sister telling her everything about Hogwarts. Perhaps—

“Kyrre, Elsa!” Startled, the crown princess looked at the stern-looking teacher she thought to be called Professor McGonagall. Elsa could sense in the tone of her voice that this hadn't been the first time the woman had called her, much to her embarrassment. Being a good multitasker, there weren't many occasions she had been caught not paying attention to a teacher. 

The problem, and she knew it would come back to bite her again, was the name. _Technically_ , she had been named Elsa Iduna Solveig Kyrre, but people had always called her either “your royal highness”, “princess” or simply “Elsa”. Therefore, even though her father had warned her that would be the name they would be using, the girl couldn't help but being irresponsible when referred to as Miss Elsa Kyrre. No matter how much she rehearsed it in her head, it would be a problem.

However, as the hat covered her eyes, shielding her from the view of the giggling faces of the other students, such thoughts vanished immediately. “Ah! What do we have here?”A voice—the _hat's_ voice—whispered in her head _._ This time, was she the only one listening? “Quite an interesting mind, I see—” A dreadful thought popped into Elsa's mind: if the hat could read her mind, it would be able to see and tellothers about her mistake, her shame. The girl gulped, _vær så snill, ikke fortell noen— jeg mener— please, don't tell anyone! God, please!_ “A worrier, huh?” 

A pause followed as the hat seemed to contemplate, and Elsa felt the cold slipping from the tip of her fingers to the cloth of her white gloves. She swallowed hard once again, trying to control her magic. _Please, don't tell—_ “a hat never tells,” the girl's erratic thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the amused response; “now, where should I put you?” Once again, it seemed to be contemplating her. “What a mind! And in all these centuries— I have rarely seen such raw talent! In Ravenclaw, you shall find your equals. However— such extreme beliefs for a young mind. No, I believe—”

Another pause. Elsa wondered how long has it passed since the hat was first placed in her head. It mustn't be too long, otherwise, people would become agitated. Wouldn't they? “I can see wit, strong loyalty and the burning desire to succeed. Perhaps— you might find kinship in Slytherin.” The hat wasn't too sure, though, and the girl had a hint on the true reason. While she didn't want to attend Hogwarts, the crown princess knew better than going with no knowledge of the place. The chapter about the house of Slytherin in “Hogwarts, a History” told her about its founder's firm belief that no muggle-born should be taught magic in Hogwarts. The hat would know better than placing one there, right?

“That leaves us— HUFFLEPUFF!” The last word came out louder than the previous and Elsa took a few seconds to realize the other students were clapping, which meant she had been sorted. Hufflepuff— a warm feeling filled her chest at the remembrance of an excerpt in “Hogwarts, a History” about the house. 

> _Hufflepuff is, perhaps, the most misunderstood of the Hogwarts houses in the modern age. Designed by the Welsh witch Helga Hufflepuff during the earliest days of the school's foundation, the house acquired the reputation of forming weak and dull wizards and witches because of its overall approval of students regarding their background or personal skills._
> 
> _Helga Hufflepuff valued fairness and loyalty, which she aspired to teach the new witches or wizards. Her lessons have been passed from generation to generation of Hufflepuff students, strong enough to create a tradition of acceptance, honesty, kindness, and communion within the house. To this day, it has produced the lowest number of dark wizards and witches of all the four houses of Hogwarts_.

Elsa didn't feel particularly accepting or kind at that moment, but the judgment of something—or someone—that could see the darkest corners of her mind filled her with joy like she hadn't experienced in many years. Besides, if Hufflepuff didn't bring up as many dark witches and wizards as the other houses, perhaps there was hope for her magic, for herself. Perhaps she wasn't so bad, after all.

With a smile of relief on her lips, Elsa carefully took off the hat and placed it back on the stool she had been sitting. After a glance through the hall, the girl walked towards the closest table on her left, where the applauds were coming from. For once, being at Hogwarts didn't seem too bad; too far to hurt her sister and surrounded by people who knew about her magic, things might turn out fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, y'all!
> 
> I will be honest here, this is not my main project at the moment. I have spent the past three months preparing and writing an Elsanna fanfiction, which I will only start publishing when I have it entirely written since I have a lot of trouble keeping a posting schedule.
> 
> A friend of mine asked me to write a Frozen/Harry Potter AU, though, and I had so much fun doing it that I decided to make it a multi-chapter thing. While I am not much keen on writing things without much of a plan, this seems to be a fun enough attempt.
> 
> Although I am not sure where I want to go just yet, there are a few things I have set in the stone: 1) this is a character-driven story focused on Elsa learning how to accept and control her magic; 2) while this is not a relationship-driven story, I will explore the relationship between Elsa and several other characters from the Harry Potter universe and the Frozen movies; 3) the romantic endgame will be Elsa/Tonks (hence the tags); 4) I couldn't find any confirmation on the date that Nymphadora Tonks and Charlie Weasley started Hogwarts, so, for the purpose of this fic, I am establishing that it happened in 1984.
> 
> Finally, neither English nor Norwegian is my native language. So, the text might not be the very best, but I am trying. If you spot any mistakes, though, feel free to point them out to me so I can fix them.
> 
> Anyway, sorry for the long note.
> 
> I hope to see you again in the next chapter o/


	2. Fake It Until You Make It

It hadn't taken too long before Elsa felt the hope fading away. As she approached the Hufflepuff table, panic rose again in her belly at the realization that people sat way too close to each other and there was no way around it since the number of chairs seemed to be close to the number of students. Someone _might_ end up touching her, which wasn't something she had been prepared to see happening.

Even if her ice powers weren't dark, they could still hurt people. In the past three years, the girl had been touched only by her parents. Since her magic had been growing more and more out of control, she had started considering it dangerous to be even in the same room as other people. Despite her concerns, both her mother and her father had still been able to soothe her into a hug sometimes, but Elsa never allowed herself in situations in which accidental touching could happen.

This time, however, there was no escape from the fact that she had to sit right beside the other Hufflepuff students. So, clenching her hands in front of her chest, the girl resumed her walk and offered the others the tense smile she usually reserved for her parents' political acquaintances that had insisted on meeting her in the past. To Elsa's immense relief, they turned their attention back to the hat as soon as the next student got sorted.

Elsa herself directed her eyes toward the hat, but she wasn't paying attention. What would she do if people wanted to shake hands with her? So far, her gloves had been a rather safe barrier to her magic, but what would happen if she completely lost control? What if she hurt someone? Would they be able to fix it as easily as Dumbledore had guaranteed they would, back when he first came to visit her in Arendelle? Would the teachers and other students judge her for her lack of control?

Trying not to succumb to panic, Elsa did her best to act natural, clapping whenever someone was sorted to Hufflepuff. It all seemed to last an eternity and the girl couldn't help but hope the feast would be over as soon as possible. Dumbledore had warned her that she would be sharing a dormitory with the other girls in her house and year. Each bed was surrounded by a curtain, however, to give the students some privacy; so, the princess was hopeful that she would be able to put some space between herself and the others once she arrived there.

Finally, Lars Westley was sorted into Ravenclaw and Professor McGonagall took the hat away, putting an end to the ceremony. At that, as if following a script, the Headmaster raised from his seat, his gaze wandering through the hall and arms wide open as if he wished to embrace each and every one of his students. His warm eyes met Elsa's for a moment, making the girl feel a little calmer—Dumbledore seemed to have an aura around him that would always make the girl feel safe.

"Welcome to one more year at Hogwarts. Before you dig into this excellent banquet, I'd like to say a few words. First, meet your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher: Professor Scamander." A red-haired man in his late early fifties rose from his seat, bending his head and raising one hand in response to the welcome applause he received from the students and the staff.

Watching the new professor, she realized he was rather nervous, his face slightly reddened by the attention. _Er han sjenert?_ Hearing her classmates talking about his reaction, she realized she hadn't been the only one to notice how shy the man was. "It's rather cute, isn't it?" A blonde girl sitting across the table told the brunette beside her.

Dumbledore only restarted speaking when the claps died and the professor was once again sitting, "and I should warn you that three more items have been added to the banned list— you will find it hanging beside the door of Mr. Filch's office— and that the Dark Forest is off-limits to all of the students." He made a small pause to allow the students to process the information. "Now— shall we dig in?"

Elsa turned to look at the dishes in front of her and was astonished to realize they were now full of all sorts of food. She was relieved to realize that some of it were rather familiar; the girl hadn't been worried about the British eating habits until she had come across the snacks they sold on the train. That had seemed to be a minor concern in comparison to the language barrier and her ability to accidentally freeze things.

Being the crown princess, Elsa had eaten some foreign food before with the children of dignitaries or rulers of other countries. Learning how to please and entertain guests on such occasions — which sometimes meant pretending to like a dish — was always one of the first lessons in a princess' curriculum.

The notion that she would have to eat that every day and night while at school hadn't crossed her mind, however, until she was on her way to Hogwarts. The shock of learning about the candies and snacks, so different from what she usually ate at home, came with one more wave of anxiety that she had only been able to put aside as she saw the castle for the first time.

It was, therefore, with a heavy sigh of relief that she reached out to help herself with peas, carrots, mashed potatoes, and a type of roasted meat that looked like beef. It was a slow process, considering that she had to be careful not to touch the people beside her and that she had been trained to avoid messes at all costs.

Although she managed to serve herself without issues, people noticed her slowness as they waited for her to finish. Despite her upbringing, the girl had never felt comfortable being the center of attention and flushed furiously when she realized that there were other children watching her.

"Do you have a contagious skin disease or something?" The blonde girl in front of her asked with intense curiosity. The blunt question had been made in such an innocent manner, however, that Elsa wondered if she had understood it correctly or if there was a hidden meaning in the words that, being not British herself, she couldn't grasp. "I mean— it is _still_ kind of hot to be wearing gloves, isn't it?"

 _Oh_. _The gloves_. Of course. No Norwegian would wear gloves in England during the summer— her father had told her that in an attempt to convince her not to wear them at all. After Dumbledore's reassurance that they could take care of repercussions if Elsa lost control over her powers, the King had been trying to talk her into putting them aside while she was at Hogwarts. At that time, the girl hadn't thought much of his comment as she usually felt no cold nor heat. She hadn't realized, though, that people would find it strange.

"No, it are— _is_ a family tradition." It was easier, she realized, to lie in her broken version of the English language than it would have been in Norwegian. Elsa had no clue why, but, although there was a hint of curiosity in her mind, she was too focused on trying to interact with the other children without making a mess out of herself to pay attention to her mind's curious endeavours. 

"That is a mean thing to say, though," a voice coming from Elsa's left stated, making her flinch in concern. Had she offended her classmates? Was it because she hadn't greeted and introduced herself first? How could have she forgotten _that_? What would her parents have said if they had seen her at that moment? They would be angry, for sure; as they had been when, a few months before the accident that had changed their lives, Anna had pointed out that the Danish ambassador had "fake hair".

Elsa's thoughts were interrupted, however, at the sight of the blonde girl's cheek reddening. "I'm sorry. I was curious, that's all." As the princess was too shocked to reply, the other seemed to take the silence as a sign of disapproval and grow even more uncomfortable. "My mum— well, she's always saying I should think before saying things. I am Arcadia, by the way, Adie for short."

"'Must be a mum thing, 'cause mine also says this sort of stuff all the time to me," the person sitting beside Elsa— much to her surprise, a _pink_ -haired girl—replied with a groan and the blonde, _Adie_ , seemed to relax a little at the sound. "I'm Tonks. You're Elsa, right?" Without a warning, she took Elsa's hand to shake it. Before the princess could feel any fright, though, it was over and the other was already retreating.

"Ja—" the princess was too astonished by the variety of emotions and situations that had been passing in the past few seconds to even consider replying to the other two in English. Her hands were visibly shaking, but Elsa was too astonished for a moment to try and make them stop. No stranger had ever touched or talked to her so unceremoniously; even Dumbledore had treated her with a level of deference—not as much as the tutors her parents had hired before, but much more than the other Hufflepuff girls were showing.

It had been agreed that, while it wasn't properly a secret, her royal background shouldn't be common knowledge among the other students. Dumbledore had told the King and Queen of Arendelle that the people in the wizarding world didn't always comprehend the non-magical government. Even those who did understand it, however, wouldn't answer to it since Wizards and Witches had their own govern.

A few weeks after Dumbledore's visit, the monarchs of Arendelle received the visit of both the Scandinavian Minister of Magic Tharald Lund and his British counterpart Millicent Bagnold. Elsa hadn't learned what exactly they had been discussing with the King and the Queen before she was called to meet them since all of the adults stopped speaking when she walked into the throne room. Her parents had told her she was too young to fully understand the conversation.

Elsa was intelligent and had enough political instruction, however, to figure that there had been a firm understanding between all the parts that it would be better if the crown princess had her magical education far from Arendelle. It didn't take long before she realized that the heir to the Arendellian throne studying magic in a Scandinavian school could cause some political conflicts in both the wizarding and the non-magical world.

Since they didn't know they had been speaking to royalty, however, Tonks and Adie wouldn't have thought of treating Elsa in a formal manner. "You're not from here, are you?" Adie asked again, sending an apologetic glance to the other two girls that expressed the internal conflict between her curiosity and her desire to respect people's boundaries. It was a rather familiar gesture to Elsa, who had seen it whenever Anna woke her up in the middle of the night to invite her to play or talk. The warmth that followed this realization made the girl come to the conclusion that she actually liked Adie.

"I am from Arendelle. It is North from Norway." Even as she spoke the words, the girl already knew the phrasing wasn't quite right. Her knowledge in foreign languages was above average in comparison to people of her own age, but there was a long way to go before she could be considered fluent in any of them. Optimistic, the King had told her she spoke as well as any native in no time and, while the girl had trouble believing him, she _hoped_ he was right. As they were, her English pronunciation and wording would attract too much attention, which was the last thing Elsa wanted.

She also didn't want to make friends. Between her ice magic and status as royalty, there was much that Elsa felt compelled to hide from her peers. The closer they were to her, the harder it would be to keep the information to herself and the more likely she would hurt them—and herself. Although she liked the way Adie reminded her of Anna, even though Tonks had been nice enough to come to rescue her, becoming friends with them could make her life even more difficult than it already was.

How was she sorted into Hufflepuff, anyway, when all she had done in the past three years was lying to the person she loved the most? What had gone through the hat's mind to place her in the house that valued honesty and fair play, when her intentions from even before she had first set foot in the castle had been to hide who she was? Was it because the hat had thought she belonged to nowhere at all and Hufflepuff was the one to accept people who didn't fit in the houses? That would make sense.

In terror, Elsa realized her gloves had started feeling small due to the thick layer of ice between her fingers and the fabric. Between Tonks' touch, Adie's questions, and the knowledge of her self-imposed isolation—as well as the trouble it could cause to her—, the princess was the closest she had been to losing control ever since the few days after the accident with Anna. She had never liked being under the spotlight, but it was even worst when she was far away from everything and everyone she knew.

"Elsa? Are you okay?" The princess looked up to face a growing frown on Tonks' face. By her expression, it was clear that she had been far too distracted to notice the other girls' previous words to her. Adie, the princess noticed with the corner of her eyes, was watching her carefully.

Clenching her hands, Elsa tried to control the flow of emotions rushing through her body and the magic flooding from the tip of her fingers. _Conceal, don't feel_ , her father's words were grounding and calming even when she spoke them inside her own mind. To other people, the mantra might have sounded cold-hearted and unhelpful, but, to the princess, it meant pretending everything was fine until it was, faking control and self-restraint to the point they came naturally to her.

"I am sorry. What said you?" Elsa tried not to worry if Tonks or Adie would end up asking her what she had been thinking about. Overthinking would always work against her; it only served for her to suffer twice. _Conceal, don't feel. Hide your fears under a mask of confidence, don't panic. Fake it until you make it._

Much to her relief, Tonks made no comment about her distraction. "Not much, actually. I was saying that I haven't heard about it," the pink-haired shrugged and offered Elsa a kind smile before turning to Adie. "What about you, Adie? Where are you from?" The princess sighed, feeling her body relax when the other blonde started telling them about her childhood in Cornwall.

Elsa was smart enough to know that Tonks had diverged the focus of the conversation from her to Adie on purpose. The pink-haired girl had noticed she was uncomfortable with the attention and had distracted the other girl with a topic that would keep her from inquiring further on the princess' background and mannerisms. It was a very insightful approach from an eleven-year-old, one that adult politicians and ambassadors had often failed to master.

Paying half-attention to the conversation around her, Elsa tried to eat some of the food on her plate. Adie's parents, she found out soon enough, were both magical, although her mother was a muggle-born; the girl had two younger siblings: a brother and a sister. Tonks, on the other hand, had been raised as an only child in Somerset by her muggle-born father and pureblood mother.

Every time Adie turned to Elsa and opened her mouth to inquire about something, Tonks intervened before the question was made. After a few minutes of tension, the princess finally started relaxing and the food became more and more delicious. The conversation around her was friendly, the first-years getting to know each other or asking questions to older students. Elsa was beginning to understand how one's house became their family when they were at school.

It was funny how different these people were. While the school tried to assemble them and label them, it took only a couple of hours for Elsa to realize they couldn't be more distinct and start questioning the whole notion of sorting students into a house. As informative as the book was, "Hogwarts, a History" had failed to point out the problems that this system could cause. People, the princess concluded, were too complex to fit labels.

Despite her deep thoughts and criticism, however, Elsa did appreciate what she was eating. The flavors were rather unfamiliar, but the contrast to what she usually had at home hadn't been unwelcome. The princess wasn't picky, but foreign dishes were sometimes unpalatable; so, the knowledge that the food in Hogwarts was actually tasty was a relief. One less thing to worry about.

Finally, the girl set her fork back on her plate, wondering when they would be allowed to the dormitories. Her belly full and her mind as relaxed as it could be when she was surrounded by hundreds of people, Elsa was starting to feel drowsy. It had been a long and difficult day, but things didn't turn out as bad as she had first thought they would. After all, she hadn't cursed anybody.

In a few weeks, her parents' Council would find a way to remove her from Hogwarts and Elsa would be back to where she belonged. All she had to do until then was to keep her head low: stay away from trouble, draw no attention to herself, make no friends, keep control over her magic. Be patient, calm, and sober. Smart. _Conceal, don't feel._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, again!
> 
> There are certain things I'd like to point out. Sorry about this long note! x_x
> 
> First this first: Elsa's speech. She is an upper-intermediate English student, which means that she can understand and speak well, but has to think before phrasing things. Being nervous in this chapter, she made a lot of mistakes, but I hope it is still readable. Also, she does have a very strong accent. 
> 
> These mistakes will start growing more subtle in the following chapters since she will become more fluent. She will also start thinking in English, which is a relief to me considering I have very poor Norwegian. 
> 
> By the way, "Er han sjenert?" means "Is he shy?".
> 
> Second, there is this awesome mobile game called "Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery" that happens in the same time frame as this fic. Although I love it and will always recommend people to check it out, I won't be using any characters or plot-lines. I will stick to the books and movies since people are more familiar with them.
> 
> Third: I changed a few tags. The story is becoming clearer in my head and I am now or less aware of what I'm going to do with some of the Frozen characters. I might change add or remove tags in the future, but the main ships and characters remain! You will see a lot of and hear about Elsa, Anna, Tonks, and Adie. I have plans for Hans as well and am still figuring out Kristoff. 
> 
> Finally, Professor Scamander, if you are wondering, is Newt and Tina's son. I haven't found anything on him in the Internet, but I will keep looking in case there's something I missed.
> 
> Thank you all for reading this and I hope to see you again!


	3. Practiced Detachment

The first night at Hogwarts was much harder than Elsa had first expected. As tired as she was by the end of the feast, it was difficult to fall asleep surrounded by people she hadn't known before that day, in a bed that was too small and hard in comparison to the one she used to have in Arendelle. The princess hadn't thought of herself as spoiled before, but she realized at that night that she was too used to having the best of everything.

However, it was her fears that kept Elsa awake for the most part of the night. Sometimes, when she had a nasty nightmare, her powers would come alive during her sleep, but it hadn't been an issue even after the accident since Anna got her own bedroom. If she did lose control this time, though, not only her classmates would find out about her powers even before the classes started, but there was a possibility of her accidentally hurting someone.

When Elsa's brain finally shut out of exhaustion and she fell into a dreamless sleep, it was to be awakened by the noise around her only a few hours later. Having slept through a short amount of time after such a stressful day, the princess considered for a moment skipping the first morning of classes. It wasn't like she would stay in the school for long enough to face the academic consequences, and she doubted the teachers would notice her absence when there were so many students.

It was the notion that her parents would be disappointed in her that dragged Elsa out of bed once her roommates finally exited the dormitory and the noise around her died. The princess had heard her father say once that since the royals' behavior in foreign land reflected the image of the entire country, it was her duty to behave. The last thing the girl wanted was to embarrass her parents and stain people's perception of Arendelle.

The loud environment of the Great Hall almost caused Elsa to forget breakfast and go hide somewhere empty and quiet until it was time to head her first class. It would be unwise to go through her lessons tired and hungry, however. Not only it would be impossible to learn something in such a state, but it also would drag the day endlessly. In addition to that, she assumed that the Great Hall would always be that crowded in the morning and, even though she would not have to endure it for long, losing a meal for what could be weeks was a bad idea.

Although Elsa sat as far away from the other students as possible, the noise and number of people—as well as her fatigue—made the notion of eating unpleasant to her stomach. It didn't help that the British breakfast was composed of heavy dishes such as sausage, eggs, and bacon, which made the princess wondered how they could get anything done in the morning when they had such a heavy meal.

Ignoring her astonishment over the British choice of food, the disgust caused by her lack of hunger, as well as trying to shield herself from the noise by pretending that she was alone, Elsa helped herself with milk and toast. Hopefully, it would be enough to get her through the morning activities and, at lunch, she would be able to figure out a time when the Great Hall wasn't as crowded as it was at that moment.

The princess was chewing her toast when she heard someone calling her name. Much to her astonishment, it was one of the fifth years who had shown the new students the way to the Hufflepuff common room in the previous night. Did older students often interact with the younger ones? What was the name of the girl, again? She had been too distracted by her exhaustion and the scenario around her to pay attention to her introduction back then.

"Huh, hi—" Elsa greeted her once she swallowed her toast, hoping that the girl wouldn't question why she was alone or, worst, ask to join her. If eating on her own had been already difficult, the princess couldn't even imagine how bad it would be to do it while trying to make conversation with a much older student.

Much to her relief, the girl didn't sit and appeared to be somewhat in a hurry. "'Morning. So, I got your schedule here," she announced with a broad smile, handing a paper to Elsa. "Since it's your first year, it has the school's map attached so you can find the classrooms. The castle is kind of confusing sometimes, though; so, until you get used to it, you shouldn't wait for the last minute to leave for class."

Since the girl seemed to be waiting for an answer, Elsa nodded. "Okay. I will go ahead, as soon as I finish breakfast," she told the other slowly, taking care to phrase it correctly. The princess had known from the beginning that the language would be an issue at first, but she hadn't expected how having to think about every single word she said could be exhausting. Hopefully, people would not talk much to her.

The girl watched Elsa with a level of curiosity that the princess was sure to be caused by her strong accent—and, perhaps, her phrasing hadn't been as good as she had thought it would have. Both her parents and Dumbledore had warned her that Hogwarts rarely accepted students from outside Great Britain, something that had become evident by the way the other students looked at her every time they realized she wasn't a native speaker.

"Well— huh— if you need anything, you can ask me or Mitchell. That's what we're here for," she said with a smile, talking in what seemed to be a slightly slower pace than before. _De tror jeg er dum._ Although Elsa had thought before that she had nothing to prove to these people, the notion that they might start acting or talking to her as if she was stupid made her both embarrassed and sad.

At home, her tutors had always spoken of how smart she was, complimenting how fast she learned most of the subjects they taught. Her dancing instructor had said she was one of his finest young students. Jens, the old man who taught her math and geography, had told her, once, that she had what it took to become a great mathematician or engineer. Even Gerda, her nanny, had praised her practice of the royal etiquette and diplomacy during a playdate with the daughters of her father's Council members. Were they only saying it because she would be, one day, their Queen? For a reason, that possibility hurt.

Fortunately, the older Hufflepuff girl was in such a hurry that she left as soon as Elsa nodded in a sign that she had understood, paying no attention to the shift in her mood. Realizing a thin layer of ice covering the half-eaten toast she had been holding, the princess placed it back on her plate and took the glass of milk in her hands. What their tutors at home and the other students at Hogwarts thought about her didn't matter, she tried convincing herself as she solved the hot drink. Being Queen was the only thing she needed to be good at and, hopefully, there would be decades before she had to worry about that.

Making an effort to change the direction of her thoughts to something more productive, Elsa turned her eyes to the piece of paper the girl had handed to her. According to it, her classes in the morning would be Herbology with Professor Sprout, the Head of Hufflepuff, and History of Magic with Professor Binns. Then, during the afternoon, there would be double Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall.

Elsa was hopeful that none of this would entail the use of a wand. Between her natural ability to conjure magic without one and her hesitation in doing so, the repercussions of being forced to cast spells were unpredictable. In truth, the girl had been hoping she would be able to avoid it until she was withdrawn from Hogwarts—not that there was a big probability of it actually happening since studying magic would most likely require _doing_ magic.

Herbology, she knew, was the study of magical plants and their properties. Elsa had read the textbook and realized that, in rare cases, the care for some of the plants required the use of spells. It was unlikely, however, that she would need to use her wand at the beginning of her first year since those species were between the most dangerous covered by the book.

History of Magic, on the other hand, was purely theoretical. The textbook was, by far, the one that had interested Elsa the most since it contained the history of witches and wizards that preceded her time. While it was discouraging since she had found no one who was able to do the kind of magic she did, it served as a reminder that she was probably not alone. After all, one book, as good as it was, could not cover thousands of years of history. There were definitely others about the subject, so, she was hopeful that she would be able to find witches and wizards like her if she looked closely enough.

Mostly, however, Elsa was worried about Transfiguration since it was the second most practical subject covered in her curriculum—only behind Charms. Each chapter of her textbook was composed of a theoretical part and a practical one. She had no doubt that if she was not required to perform magic that day, she would in the next class. It would be hard to get away from doing it, but, even in the worst-case scenario, the girl would still have the entire morning to figure out an excuse not to.

Knowing that she didn't have the stomach to eat any more solid food, Elsa swallowed the rest of her milk and followed to the dormitories to get the supplies required for the classes she would have that day. The girl didn't find many people in her way in or out of her common room since most of the other students were still having breakfast or talking to their friends in the corridors. Her dormitory was, thankfully, empty.

Following the advice given by the fifth-year girl, Elsa headed straight to the greenhouse. What she hadn't expected was to get there in a matter of fifteen minutes. Since the classroom wasn't inside the castle, it had been easy enough to be found. The princess was, therefore, the very first student to arrive there, almost forty minutes before the time the class was to be started.

Professor Sprout was already sitting by her desk, and enjoying one last cup of tea when Elsa entered and headed to a table in the middle of the classroom. The girl was aware of the teacher's eyes on her, but didn't look up in an attempt to avoid conversation. Not only talking in English was tiresome, but she also didn't want the teacher questioning why she had arrived alone and so early.

It was a hopeless affair, however. By the princess' observations, it seemed that the situation was unusual even during the first day at school and uncommon behaviors were something even her tutors had been forced to take notice of. "You are early today, Miss Kyrre," there was kindness in the woman's voice and the hint of the question Elsa dreaded to be forced to answer: _are you okay?_

"I— I am sorry, ma'am—?" Even the princess was aware that it wasn't the proper way to answer the teacher. She hadn't done anything wrong since being early was hardly an academic issue. What else could she have said, however? Trying to control her breath to keep her anxiety at bay, Elsa busied herself getting her book, parchments and a fountain pen—a gift from her father, since writing with a quill had sounded too ridiculous to her—from her bag.

"Are you well, my dear?" The teacher's voice was dangerously close, startling Elsa to the point that she unconsciously looked up to meet the woman's eyes. Like her voice, they were warm and kind—what else would one expect from the Head of Hufflepuff?—, but Elsa felt nothing but fright at the notion that someone was this close to her. "I realize this might be more difficult for you than it is to the others, considering the cultural and language barriers."

The princess opened her mouth to reply, her face painted in a deep shade of pink, but no sound came from it. In an attempt to find her voice, she turned her eyes away and let a deep sigh escape. It was only after regaining her composure that Elsa opened her mouth again, "I am fine," as terrible the lie was, the girl hoped her teacher would let this go and leave her be. "It is not much difficult to follow people speech and the food is— good," the girl completed, trying to make her words closer to the truth.

"I see," Professor Sprout sounded unconvinced by her answer and, for one moment, the girl thought she would ask how things were actually going and what was in her mind. To Elsa's immense relief, however, the teacher decided against pressing that matter any further, "you know you can come to me if you have any trouble at all, don't you?"

The words were very similar to the ones said by the girl who had handed her the schedule and school's map, but they made much more sense coming from a teacher since they were the ones responsible for the students' well-being when they were at school. So, although her voice was low and weak, Elsa was speaking the truth when she nodded and replied: "I know, ma'am."

There was a smile on the woman's voice when Elsa heard her next words, "you don't worry, dear, there will be plenty of time for you to make friends. Here in Hogwarts, most of the classes involve at least a level of teamwork." The last part only served to make the princess even more nervous. What had been intended to be an encouragement was received as a promise, almost a threat: _you are going to make friends, or else you will fail._

 _Jeg vil gå hjem, vær så snill._ A part of Elsa knew how unreasonable that line of thought was since professor Sprout had been nothing but kind to her, but a much bigger part was terrified. She wondered if the teachers weren't much different from her parents, who had been voicing for the past three years their desire to reunite her with Anna, trying to convince her that the accident had been nothing but that, and her powers weren't as dangerous as she feared. How could she not be afraid, though, when she had so easily harmed the person she loved the most?

Much to her horror, Elsa felt the teacher's hand on her back and, looking up, realized that the woman had sat beside her. Instantly, the air around them grew cold and a thin layer of ice started covering the surface of the desk around her fingers. "Ikke ta på meg!" The girl recoiled from the woman's touch as snow started falling over them and the ice covered the plant placed in front of them.

It was the startled expression in professor Sprout's face that caused Elsa to follow her gaze toward the plant and recoil her hands in a haste. Much to the girl's surprise, however, the woman simply fished her wand from her pocket and whispered a spell that seemed to instantly warm the area surrounding them, melting the ice and snow. Far from hurt, the plant seemed to enjoy the extra dose of water and heat it received.

"Er det— are it— _is_ it okay?" As she was rather astonished, it was impossible to speak a perfect English as she looked up to meet the eyes that once again Elsa felt on her. At that point, she was so amazed by the magic performed by professor Sprout and relieved that no harm had come to the plant that the princess not only forgot how to use the language, but also to feel embarrassed about her outburst and scared of the consequences of her doings for herself.

"It is fine," the teacher's voice was both amused and worried, but she was prevented from elaborating when a group of four Hufflepuff boys arrived in the classroom, making the teacher's focus shift for the seconds it took for her to welcome each and every one of them in her class. One by one, they sat by the table beside Elsa's, sending curious glances towards the girl and the professor.

When her eyes turned back toward Elsa, professor Sprout was once again smiling. "I'd like to have a little chat with you after your classes today, if you don't mind. Don't worry, dear, you're not in trouble—" the teacher added quickly at the sight of panic in the girl's eyes. "I figure there's plenty for us to discuss about your adjustment to being in Hogwarts, but I am confident you know now that we can fix small accidents—?"

Although concerned despite the teacher's reassurance, the girl nodded to keep her from saying more in front of the boys, who were watching them with growing curiosity. That accident, however, had been nothing in comparison to what had happened to Anna; the fact that the woman had been able to fix a plant in a matter of seconds didn't mean she would be equally able to heal one of the students if Elsa lost control over her magic.

"I will be waiting for you here at 7, then, right after supper." After seeing Elsa nodding once again, the teacher headed back to her table. The girl, on the other hand, focused on controlling her breath to keep her powers from manifesting again. Although the teacher had told her she was not in trouble at that moment, the princess wondered if she wouldn't get into some before the day ended.

Elsa had convinced herself to hide somewhere empty and skip the following classes when she felt people sitting around her. Looking up from her hands, the girl realized that Tonks, Adie, and a Hufflepuff boy had decided to share a table with her. "Wotcher, Elsa," the pink-haired girl said, sitting beside her with a broad smile of excitement. She had, the princess noticed, kept a good distance between their bodies, something that made her sigh in relief.

"Whoa! Is this a Meisterstück 149? Those are like— the best fountain pen in the world!" The boy sitting in front of her declared in excitement before Adie could add a greeting to Tonks'. Despite the concerns haunting her mind, Elsa was proud of herself when she realized that, although he had spoken very quickly, she had understood most of the words _and_ the meaning of what he had said. "How did you even get one of these? Can I test it? I promise I will be careful."

The expression of wonder in his eyes made the girl giggle in amusement. Her hands were trembling in anxiety, she handed the fountain pen to him. "It is a gift from my father," Elsa explained in a soft voice, trying not to call people's attention to herself. The boy, however, was too busy looking for a parchment so he could test the pen to pay attention to what she was saying.

Tonks and Adie exchanged a gaze and sighed in unison, before turning again to Elsa. "This oaf's name is Adam," said Adie, poking the boy with her elbow, who looked up in annoyance as Tonks cracked into laughter. "Don't muggles introduce themselves before asking to borrow school supplies from their classmates?"

"Oh, er— sorry about that— I'm Adam— Howard," the boy cleared his throat, uncomfortable. "Adam Howard, I mean. It's just that— my father is a writer and he's obsessed with these pens, but he would never let me borrow his and I've always wondered— you know— how it felt to write using one." The boy's face was completely pink once he finished his explanation, which made both Tonks and Adie giggle softly.

"It's okay. You can use it this class," Elsa herself couldn't understand why the other girls were laughing, but she was too busy trying to figure out how to say what she wanted in English to give it much of a thought. "I will use my— the other." The girl mentally cursed her lack of vocabulary as she busied herself trying to find a much less expensive fountain pen she had often used to do her favourite math exercises at home.

The boy was in silence for a few seconds, astonished, before replying enthusiastically, "thank you!" Elsa smiled shyly in response, but Adam wasn't paying attention to her anymore, too busy doodling the Sorting Hat on a piece of parchment. "This pen is incredible! I feel I could draw anything with it," he said to the girls, his face still filled with wonder.

Shaking her head, Adie turned to Elsa. "Is this sort of quill a muggle thing?" She asked with curiosity. Muggle. That was a strange word that no one had bothered to explain to the princess, but, even before the feast in the previous day, she had deduced it was how witches and wizards referred to magical people. Muggles were non-magical people, muggle-born were the people with muggle parents.

Before Elsa could think about the question, however, Tonks was already answering it, "yeah, my dad always says no quill can replicate the simplicity of a good muggle pen." She chuckled at that, finding it amusing. The princess, however, couldn't help but agree with Tonks' father; quills were not only extravagant, but also impractical. The few times she had tried getting used to them, it was just to soon give up— a pen felt much more comfortable in her hand.

Adie giggled with Tonks before turning to face Elsa, "anyway, you should have joined us during breakfast." The words were said in such a light tone that it was obvious that she wasn't offended, but actually curious. Despite that, the princess was somewhat taken aback, unsure of how to respond to that late invitation—she wondered if the other girls would be offended if she still refused to sit with them in the next day. The whole experience of keeping to herself while she was at Hogwarts was becoming more and more difficult.

Elsa looked from Adie to Tonks, sending her a pleading gaze as the mere thought; justifying her actions in English was too exhaustive at that moment. The pink-haired had been perceptive and empathetic on the previous night, noticing that she had wanted to be left alone; so, the princess was hopeful that she would be helpful once again. Much to her relief, the girl took the clue: "I'm sure Elsa knows she could come to sit with us, but I wouldn't advise if you mind people stealing the food in your plate every ten seconds," Tonks giggled, teasing Adie, and smirked at Elsa in an invitation for her to join them in the joke.

Elsa looked toward Adie, worried that she was offended by Tonks' words, but the girl was also laughing softly. In such a light atmosphere, she couldn't help but nervously smile. Being empathetic and kind was a Hufflepuff trait and, as different as their approaches were, the two girls were respectful towards the princess' anxious behavior. Whenever the pink-haired came to her rescue, the other blonde would take the hint and stop pushing her.

Despite their similar positive attitude toward Elsa, their personalities were very distinct. While one was inquisitive, curious, and reckless—very similar to Anna, indeed—, the other had a playful nature, but was careful not to step into anyone's boundaries, intervening and coming to rescue every time the princess found herself in a situation that made her nervous. Despite her resistance to make friends, Elsa liked both of the girls and found herself _wanting_ to get to know them better.

On the other hand, Adam was a mystery to her. Since they hadn't talked during the feast on the previous night, the other two girls probably had made acquaintances with him during that morning. The trio joked as if they hadn't been strangers before yesterday had started, but had actually known each other for a long time. If it was the case, though, why wouldn't they have talked to each other the night before?

Coming from a world of ceremony and careful approaches, where one single word could cause great harm, the notion of becoming such fast friends with someone was odd to Elsa. If her powers weren't an issue and she had been willing to remain in the castle for the seven-year course, the princess would have found herself wishing to stay close to that group and learn about how to be more like them. Considering, however, that Elsa was not willing to learn magic, it was unwise to befriend them since, even if she managed not to hurt them with her powers, she would miss them after she was gone.

As the princess fought her own thoughts, struggling with her own convictions, the girls resumed their chat and allowed her some time for herself. Even then, they were still respecting her boundaries. Elsa only hoped that the teacher would start the class soon; as the seconds passed, more and more students were arriving, turning the new environment quite crowded and loud. If the uniforms were any indication, they would be sharing the class with the Gryffindor students.

After a few minutes, she looked up to see if professor Sprout was about to start the class and found the teacher's eyes traveling between the classroom and the piece of paper on her desk. When their eyes met, a few seconds later, Elsa received a reassuring smile from her and a head-gesture that the girl was sure meant to be a request for her to try and talk to her classmates. Unwilling to do it, though, she turned away and started searching through her book for the plant in front of them.

That day, apparently, they would be studying Moly, an herb that, according to her book, had been first registered by the Ancient Greek poet Homer on his Odyssey. Elsa had read an adapted version of his work and, as she saw the story mentioned in her textbook, she was able to visualize the page where the plant had figured. It had been a gift from Hermes to protect the novel's hero, Odysseus, against the magic of the sorceress Circe.

Apparently, there was truth in the story since Moly was, indeed, consumed by witched wizards to counteract certain enchantments or used as a potion ingredient in order to cure minor injuries. It made Elsa wonder how many legends and tales from the non-magical world had a magical background; one more thing she would never know entirely.

Elsa was so distracted by the information about the plant in front of her that she only realized professor Sprout had stood up and was about starting the lesson once the classroom went silent. Raising her eyes, she realized everyone was paying attention to the teacher, seems to be excited to start learning some magic even though that class would hardly involve casting spells.

Observant, Elsa took her pen and started writing on the rough parchment surface, wishing she had some white paper—soother and much more comfortable to write on. Her mother, the girl remembered, loved to work on her private garden within the castle's gates; her favourite flower was the star-shaped flower called Menyanthes trifoliata, which was said to have properties to help to treat insomnia. What she liked the most to plant, however, were fruits and vegetables, often taken to the kitchens whenever the Queen was in the mood to prepare a meal for her children.

The memory of her mother kneeled down on the ground and with her hands deep into the soil brought some warmth to Elsa's chest. In a complete resolution, she turned to pay attention to the class, decided about absorbing as much as possible so she could write it to her mother; perhaps, if the girl could learn enough about them, her mother would be able to grow some magical plants in her little garden, maybe these plants could create some new medicines to help treating unknown illnesses.

Ignoring the fact that she was surrounded by other children, Elsa's eyes only travelled from professor Sprout to her paper and vice versa. Unconsciously, a smile started growing on her lips as she concentrated and _thought_ , turning full on what her father had once called a "scholar-mood".

The thirsty for knowledge won over her anxiety and, for the next one-and-a-half hour, the crown princess was at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello once again!
> 
> Thank you all who read, favorited, followed, and (seriously) reviewed this fic.
> 
> Now, to the story. I'm happy to say I now have a true plot for it. Bear with me during this looong introduction the characters and the scenario, although I'm aware it's taking too long, the list of important original characters as well as the establishment of Elsa's personality at this point require this. The next chapter, however, will be the last of this introduction; we will start to get deep into the story when we reach chapter V.
> 
> The expressions in Norwegian. De tror jeg er dum means "they think I am stupid". Jeg vil gå hjem, vær så snill means "I want to go home, please". Ikke ta på meg means "don't touch me".
> 
> I'd like to thank my great friend Rubem, who's not only beta-ing this fic, but also has been musing with me, helping me establishing a plot and solidifying it.
> 
> Thank you all for reading! See you next.


	4. Screaming Complexion

In the end, a big part of the Herbology lesson was introductory as Professor Sprout introduced herself and the course. They only started studying the actual subject about one hour into class beginning, which Elsa realized she actually enjoyed as long as she remembered that the teacher would be able to heal any plants she accidentally hurt.

Finally, when they heard a bell ring announcing the end of the class, Elsa was so absorbed taking notes that Tonks had to poke her in order to call her attention, which made the princess' gloves turn suddenly rigid while it contained the ice she conjured. "You want to head out with us? I've heard it's kind of easy to get lost in the castle, so it would be nice to have an extra pair of eyes," the pink-haired girl suggested after quickly retreating her hand, once again showing her empathy.

For a reason she couldn't grasp, Elsa trusted the pink-haired girl and felt safe in her company. It felt to be unreasonable since she didn't change how dangerous her powers were or how painful it would be to be separated from or rejected by the others once her magic was discovered or she was withdrawn from the school. Still, the emotion along with the fear of getting lost on her own in that big and confusing castle were stronger than her desire to be left alone and she saw herself agreeing. "I— okay," Elsa offered Tonks a nervous smile.

Worried about making the others be late for the next class, the princess turned her attention to her supplies still spread on the table and quickly moved them back to her backpack. Meanwhile, Adam placed her fountain pen back in front of her, "thank you, that was amazing! I might even save my allowance to buy one." With a big smile on his face and too excited to remain still, the boy got on his feet as he started gathering his own supplies.

Elsa offered him a sincere smile in response. _Han er søt!_ The thought surprised her as she had never thought of anyone besides her sister as cute, but it awoke her protective nature. It was a dumb feeling, the girl thought, since there was nothing dangerous within the castle's grounds that she was more suited than her teachers to protect the others from.

A few seconds later, though, an idea popped into her mind. There was indeed one thing she was the aptest person to deal with: herself. Elsa lowered her head to focus on her current task to hide the flush that was spreading through her face. If the others noticed, though, they ignored.

Finally, when they were all set to leave, the group headed out under the warm gaze of their teacher. Elsa tried not to look toward her, but was forced to when she heard the woman's voice as they passed in front of her desk: "have a nice first day, dears." Although the others offered her an enthusiastic farewell, Elsa just nodded shyly and looked away.

"She seems really nice, doesn't she?" Tonks said once they passed through the castle's front door. "Dad says she's a good teacher too, although neither he nor mum took Herbology during their N.E.W.T.s years." While she remained in silence, Elsa rose her headin curiosity. She was certain that it was the first time she had heard of such a thing as a "newt's year". Perhaps the word had a double meaning that the girl wasn't aware of.

"What do you mean by _newt's_ year?" Adam asked with a mix of curiosity and impatience and, while she wasn't as eager to know as the boy, she was glad he had voiced her question. Also, if he didn't know what that was, perhaps it wasn't a language distinction as much as it was a difference between the muggle and the wizarding worlds.

Since Tonks was too busy giggling, it was up to Adie to try and to come up with an answer. "Well, it's kind of about the classes' level, right? In the fifth year, we will take the O.W.L. test— that's short for Ordinary Wizarding Level— and, if we pass a subject and decide to keep studying it during the sixth and seventh years, we start taking the N.E.W.T.s classes."

"Right," Tonks interfered with a smile once Adie finished her explanation. "My mum and dad didn't take Herbology during their last couple of years at Hogwarts. I suspect dad didn't pass his O.W.L.s, anyways. He's never been very good at keeping plants alive and mum says she wouldn't give him a chance to kill me or our owl Ferdinand under his care." The pink-haired girl giggled at her family's inside joke, paying no mind to the fact that she was the only one who understood it properly.

Elsa was certain that she wouldn't be staying in the British wizarding world for even enough time to complete her O.W.L.s, so she paid no mind to the conversation when her companions started discussing the impact of the exams in their future and, later on, what career they had been thinking of following once they finished their studies. The topic wasn't uninteresting, for sure, but it made her feel even more alienated since, even if her parents forced her to remain in Hogwarts, her future had been drawn for her since even before her birth.

Instead, Elsa focused on the map in her hands, trying to figure out the best way to reach their next class. She considered herself lucky that the classroom was on the first floor since, although the corridors and large numbers of rooms on their way were somewhat confusing, they wouldn't have to face the moving stairs just yet.

After a few minutes, Adam leaned closer to Elsa to look at her map. "Do you know where we are?" The boy didn't seem to be worried, despite the confused expression on his face. Since pulling away would be rude and the English words escaped from her mind as the fear of being accidentally touched rose, the princess merely pointed their location with her trembling finger.

Adam smiled at her reaction and, much to her relief, pulled away to walk beside her at a safe enough distance so they wouldn't touch each other accidentally. "You don't talk much, do you? That's okay, I don't mind," the boy hurried to speak as Elsa's face grew uncomfortable. "Tonks and Adie say you're from another place, so I figured— it must be hard to have to speak an entirely new language and all. You can talk if you want, but, so you know, it's fine if you don't want to— the girls— and I, I suppose— we can talk enough to cover for you."

Not only his ramblings, but also the way his dark red hair covered his expectant green eyes and the playful smile on his lips reminded Elsa of her sister once again. His colors weren't the same as Anna's, but the smile brought enough similarity between them to cause one of her own. "It is difficult," the princess replied, unsure of what else to say with her limited vocabulary to fill the silence that followed. Adam, however, seemed to be pleased with the response he received and pulled his schedule from his cloak's pocket to consult the map in it.

"Let's see—" he said, thoughtful, scratching his chin with his free hand. Elsa turned her own focus to the paper in her hands, noticing they were approaching their goal at a good pace and would be in the classroom with some time to spare. Considering that she had been raised to never be late—tardiness being considered very rude—, the princess was happy with the realization.

Nearly five minutes later, the four crossed a door to find some of their Hufflepuff classmates but no professor. Adie seemed to have had the same line of thought of Elsa's, as she looked around before speaking, "where's the professor?" Adam and Tonks, who had been talking among themselves and had stopped by the two blondes at the entrance, also searched the teacher with their eyes, finding no one.

"Perhaps he's invisible—" the pink-haired girl suggested, much to Elsa's surprise. If the teachers were able to turn invisible at will— well, that was a terrifying notion that the princess didn't feel like entertaining. If professors _could_ be invisible, how would they know if they weren't spying on their students? Not that she planned on doing something wrong, but with her powers, one never knew. What if she lost control in the halls? They were forbidden to use magic there.

"I mean, perhaps," agreed Adie calmly. Looking at Adam, she realized he looked interested but not at all concerned. Why was she the only one who was horrified by the idea? Adie's eyes traveled between her classmates until they focused on Elsa; realizing the princess' terrified expression, the girl offered an explanation, "professor Binns is a ghost, Elsa. But he's harmless, don't worry."

"Harmless— unless you can die of boredom, you mean," Tonks giggled happily. "There aren't many things my mum and dad agree about the classes in Hogwarts, but both of them are adamant on how _boring_ Binns' classes are." A _ghost_ as a teacher? Sure, Elsa had seen many ghosts in the castle and even spoke to the one that resided in the Hufflepuff common room, Fat Friar. But a _teacher_?

Why would his classes be boring, though? Having a History teacher who was himself historical should be nothing but interesting. Despite Tonks' statement, Elsa was hopeful that professor Binns could be the right person to ask about her powers since there _must_ have been people like her before. He could at least be able to send her in the right direction.

Ignoring Tonks' warnings and with a confidence she hadn't felt since Dumbledore's visit, Elsa headed to the front of the classroom and sat right in front of the teacher's desk. Why, she wondered, professor Binns would need a desk if he was himself a ghost? Was he capable of sitting? Did he get tired at all? Although she was rather curious, however, those were the sort of questions the princess knew she shouldn't ask as they would probably be considered rude.

Elsa was surprised when she heard someone sitting beside her and turned to see that it was Adam. "You know, it's not because I'm hoping you could lend that pen of yours again, really," the boy said with a playful smile. "I really used to like studying History at my old school. Hopefully, Professor Binns isn't so bad, right? But it would be really nice if I had that pen for another period."

He looked at her with pleading eyes full of expectancy, although she could see he was joking and wouldn't be mad if she didn't lend the pen. Hopefully. Wouldn't he, though? He looked rather calm and playful, but one could never know. "I— sure," at that, Elsa placed her backpack on the desk and started searching for it.

"Oi, I was kidding!" He placed a hand on his backpack to call her attention, once again seeming very aware of the fact that she didn't like to be touched. Yes, Tonks and Adie were definitely responsible for that, and Elsa couldn't thank them enough. "I mean, the pen _is_ awesome and I wouldn't mind if you were willing to lend it to me, but it's your pen and you should use it if that's what you want."

The boy giggled and shook his head when, having found the pen, Elsa placed it on the desk in front of him, trying a smile to reassure him that it was okay. "Oh, thank you! Here, let me do something for you in return." To the princess' surprise, he opened his backpack and fished a few paper sheets, placing them in front of her. "I noticed you don't like writing on parchment and I mean— it is kind of thick and rough. I brought paper for drawing, though; you can have some if you want."

At first, Elsa thought about declining, but it was a gentle gesture repaying her own consideration: a gift that had come as an expression of gratitude. It was something royals had to deal with often, her mother had warned her, and had to always go along with, since refusing such presents would be either rude or offensive. Instead, then, the girl smiled and nodded, "thank you."

It was when she finished placing a pen and her book on her desk, noticing that Tonks and Adie had sat on the desk right behind them, that professor Binns slid into the classroom through the blackboard. She saw some students jump and one of them even yelled, but, having been warned about him, Elsa was unfazed. The teacher, as well, seemed to be unperturbed by such a welcome from the students.

Looking around, Elsa realized that there were only Hufflepuff students in the room since it was a rather small one. Why, she wondered, they had chosen such a small classroom when there were probably thousands of big ones in that large castle. It didn't make sense, but there was an advantage: as the shock at seeing that their teacher would be a ghost slowly fade, it only took a few seconds before the class grew silent.

Professor Binns, however, took no notice of his students as he was too busy gesturing his wand toward the blackboard, making words appear there. He didn't ask them to write on their books and parchments, but the princess quickly recognized the notes as of similar content to the first chapter of History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot, and started copying.

Her curiosity regarding his behavior was great, though. Was it normal for teachers to ignore their students so bluntly? All her former tutors greeted her at the moment they walked into the room, but she _was_ their princess. Although the teachers were allowed to reprimand and discipline her, not only a level of respect was required from them, but they were also well aware that she would, one day, be their Queen. Therefore, she didn't suppose she had much to compare to.

By some of her classmates' response to professor Binns' evasive behavior as well as his monotone, continuous, and unperturbed speech throughout the entire lecture, however, it became clear that his methods were far from ordinary. Within minutes, the attention of the other children mingled. As minutes passed, Elsa could hear some conversation and even snoring.

Used to having to sit through massively uninteresting discussions and classes regarding unpractical themes such as philosophy and psychology, though, Elsa had no problem following the teacher's speech. Indeed, the lecture had been quite interesting in comparison to those since she had been eager to know reports of people who had similar magic to hers.

Although, in the end, the teacher didn't say anything about such types of wizards and witches, he approached the topic of discussion, witchcraft in pre-historical times, through a different optic than the book's and explored further points. Therefore, the princess got past the boring speech by writing down every single word he was dictating in order to keep her mind going.

Elsa had no complaints regarding the lecture, but the professor's refusal to acknowledge the students put her off about asking questions after class. Indeed, even if she had gathered the courage to approach him, it took him no more than a few seconds to vanish the notes on the blackboard before disappearing right in front of the students' eyes.

Beside her, Adam was stretching his arms, seeming to have been waking up from a deep slumber. Even though she thought he should have made a bigger effort to pay attention, Elsa chose to make no comment as she gathered her things. It wasn't her place to say what was right or wrong; and, even if it was, the princess knew she was ignorant of how regular students should behave in a classroom.

"You have _some_ skills, Elsa, to be able to listen to Binns for to the entire bloody class," Tonks said when Elsa turned to her side to once again pack her supplies. The girl was scratching her head in frustration, making her spiky pink hair look even messier. Meanwhile, Adie was yawning soundly as she stood up to get the bag she had left beside her chair.

Elsa had to take a few seconds to figure out how to say what she wanted without sounding judgmental or dumb. "I have never gone to a school. I thought— my mamma told me I should følg med— I mean—" she sighed in frustration, feeling herself starting to flush. What was the word in English? Unable to remember in time, she changed her approach to the phrase: "she said I need to _focus_ on what the teachers say." Tonks watched her as she struggled and, after a few seconds, she felt the eyes of the entire class on her. Too scared to check if they were actually paying attention, however, she looked at her feet. "I am sorry."

Much to Elsa's relief, no one commented on her accent during the few seconds before Tonks replied to her. "Look, your mother isn't exactly here to check, is she? You can do whatever you want and it's not like she's going to find out. Unless you do something so bad that Dumbledore would feel obligated to owl people a few countries away," the pink-haired girl was giggling between words and had to stop herself to crack into laughter. She took many seconds to recover and continue, "but if you _really_ want to pay attention, it's brilliant! That way you can teach everyone else."

"I mean, considering that you can't be worse than Binns, I bet the entire class will want to learn from you. Can't say I've seen anyone else paying attention," Adie had started giggling with Tonks, although she was surprisingly more restrained. What Elsa couldn't understand was _why_ they had been laughing. Was it her accent? Was it what she had said about her mother? Or, perhaps, both? _De tror jeg er dum._

The embarrassment and sadness Elsa felt at the realization didn't last much since, soon enough, she noticed the ice covering her skirt around her hand. Terrified, the princess closed her backpack in a hurry and rushed as fast as she could out of the classroom and as far away as possible from the place where most of the students seemed to be heading to: the Great Hall.

All thoughts of lunch were forgotten as Elsa looked for a place to hide, a place where she could unleash the powers threatening to overflow from her body without hurting anyone. Finally, knowing she wouldn't be able to hold it anymore, the princess walked into the nearest empty, windowless classroom and shut the door.

As her magic was released from her body in a whirlwind, the relief was so enormous that Elsa could sense nothing else for a long time. Unaware of the fact that she was surrounding herself with snow and ice, the princess stood in the middle of the classroom, her backpack forgotten on her back, her hair loosened by the strong winds produced by her powers.

Elsa didn't notice, either, the passage of time; she didn't worry about her hunger or the fact that, at some point, the teachers would start looking for her. Alone behind a door that she had unintentionally barricaded with the wind, ice, and snow; even long after her magic calmed down, safe within her body, the princess felt freedom.

Alone, that was the only way she and the others could ever be safe. Alone, that was how she could be free.

**~~//~~**

Softness and confusion were the only things in Elsa's mind when she slowly started regaining consciousness. She seemed to be laying on a comfortable surface, covered by cozy, heavy blankets. They felt odd, however, different from the ones she had at her bedroom and there were voices speaking strange words in a different language. Where was she?

Suddenly, she was taken by the remembrance of Hogwarts, the other children laughing at her and her control slipping away. In the locked classroom, after releasing her magic, the princess had felt a little better for a while. By herself, she pretended that Anna was there and they were playing their favorite games, going as far as building Olaf for the first time in many years.

As she grew hungry and tired, Elsa realized she would have to leave that sanctuary to find food and a bed, she would be required to meet and talk to people. Still, each time she thought about it, the memory of how painful and tiresome the last two days was discouraging to her. If the girl had known the way, she could have gone straight to Professor Dumbledore and asked him to take her home.

Unsure of the passage of time, not knowing how to reach the Headmaster or the teachers, and unwilling to interact with more people than it was necessary, Elsa remained undecided until she finally passed out of exhaustion on the ground of an empty classroom, surrounded by the ice and snow she had conjured and hugging Anna's favorite ice dolls, watched by Olaf.

Now, she couldn't feel the dolls against her palms or the thickness in the air caused by her magic outbursts. The soft light of candles around her, Elsa realized as she opened her eyes, indicated that it was night. Sitting up and looking around, the princess noticed she was in the white large room unlike any she had ever been before. The beds, nightstands, and walls were empty and plain. _Hvor er jeg?_

"I see you are awake, Miss Kyrre," following the voice coming from a corner that she hadn't had the time to examine yet, Elsa found the stern face of the tall professor who had guided her through the Great Hall for the very first time and read her name right before she was selected to Hufflepuff. Studying McGonagall, the princess realized that, although serious, the transfiguration professor was rather calm.

Beside her, there was a shorter grey-haired woman dressed as a nurse—that was the moment Elsa realized she was at the hospital or, most likely, at a hospital room in Hogwarts. The woman had a concerned look on her face that the princess always associated with her mother and the royal doctors when she was sick, "how are you feeling, dear?"

As she approached, Elsa recoiled, clenching her hands in front of her chest only to realize they were uncovered. "Hvor er hanskene mine?!" The girl asked in despair as she searched with her eyes for her gloves, already aware that the air around them was growing colder at every passing second. Finally, she located her gloves lying on the nightstand beside her bed and rushed to put them on.

When Elsa turned again to face the nurse, she was surprised to see that the woman was crossing the entrance of the room, leaving the princess alone with the transfiguration professor. McGonagall only moved when the door was closed, drawing her wand and making a series of movements at the same time that a tray of food appeared right in front of the girl. "You should eat, Miss Kyrre."

Much to her surprise, the tray was composed of hot fish soup, bread and a glass of what seemed to be juice. It wasn't the exact same type of food she ate at home, but it was closer than anything she had found at the train or the Great Hall. "Usually, the students prefer something of more substance after a full day, but Madam Pomfrey suggested you should start with some lighter food since you skipped lunch _and_ supper. Now, go ahead and eat."

Although the teacher was calm—gentle, even—, Elsa recognized the no-nonsensical inflection on professor McGonagall's voice that left no room for argument. Not that the princess was willing to argue, anyway, since she was starting to realize that she was hungrier than she recalled ever being and eager to eat much more than just one soup dish.

Since she didn't know if she would be allowed to repeat, however, Elsa made an effort to eat slowly. It didn't take long before she finished, however, "can I— _may_ I have more, Frøker?" The princess had no idea if that was the right way to address the teacher as she was usually on a first-name basis with her tutors, but she was too tired and eager at that moment to care. "Please?"

As she turned to send a pleading look towards McGonagall, Elsa noticed she was now sitting on a chair beside her, although far enough for the girl to feel safe. The teacher watched for a second, undisturbed by the surprise in the princess' expression, before shaking her head, "as I said before, you should start slowly after so long without eating." Elsa sighed in defeat, which brought the corners of the woman's mouth upwards. "There are some things we should discuss first. Then, if you still want to, I will fill your dish again."

The notion that a professor wanted to talk to her was scary, especially considering that she had skipped her class earlier that day. Was she going to be reprimanded? Punished, even? How _did_ they punish bad students at a school such as Hogwarts? What about her magic? Was the teacher mad at her for losing control? Professor Dumbledore assured her that he would warn the teachers about her powers and she wouldn't be punished for accidentally releasing them, but _had_ skipped a class that would, according to the Headmaster, would help her to learn how to deal with her magic.

"I see," looking down at her lap, Elsa realized her bed was now covered by snowflakes—once again, she was losing control. Calming herself by breathing slowly and closing her eyes, the snow started decreasing. Before she could apologize, however, McGonagall moved her wand and the snow on the bed evaporated. "I understand that neither professor Dumbledore nor professor Sprout had any success convincing you that we have means to protect you and your friends from possible side effects of your magic."

Elsa lowered her head when she felt her cheeks burning in embarrassment. Although the professor's voice wasn't harsh, it was sober, which made her feel like she was being reprimanded. "I do not like magic, Frøker. I want to go _home_. Hogwarts are not a place for me," it was a statement that Elsa knew would call McGonagall's attention, a bait to deviate the topic in discussion. A lazy, coward approach that would have made her father scold her.

"Well," the teacher's voice was unreadable, but Elsa couldn't force herself to look up to try and read her face. "If you want to go home, nobody can or will force you to stay in Hogwarts. But pray tell me, Miss Kyrre: what do you _know_ about magic? How much do you know about your _own_ magic?"

Elsa didn't know how to respond to such an unexpecting question. She had, of course, figured that the professor would want to inquire further about her decision, refusing to let her withdraw from Hogwarts without a good explanation. Her knowledge about magic was, however, the type of question the princess wouldn't be able to answer honestly without contradicting herself since the truth was: she didn't know much about it at all.

"I thought so—" McGonagall's voice was rather severe and somewhat tense at that point. Even without looking at her, Elsa could sense deep disapproval from the woman. "Well, miss Kyrre, I understand the source of your fears. _However_ , if what professor Dumbledore told me about your intellect is true, you should have no trouble understanding how knowledge can be a powerful weapon against fear."

McGonagall was right, Elsa _was_ able to grasp on how knowledge could help people surpassing their fears. Yet, to acquire that level of insight, she would have to _practice_ magic and, despite everyone's reassurance of the contrary, put others in danger. "Frøker, I do not wish to— _do_ magic. If I could just learn the— theory— apart from the others," the girl had a little trouble figuring out the right words to use. How could she learn when even the most basic interaction was so exhausting?

"That is not the way to study magic such as yours. Theory can only take you so far," the teacher made a long pause as if waiting for Elsa to reply. The girl, however, couldn't figure what to say. All she knew was that magic had hurt Anna, the person she loved the most, and that was, in her opinion, a reason good enough for her aversion toward her powers.

"As for doing it on your own, we won't make an exception _just_ because you are scared, Miss Kyrre. Not when the fears are so irrational. Allow me to give you an example," McGonagall made a small pause as if she was trying to come up with one good enough to convince the girl. "Well, a few decades ago, a Basilisk— that is a giant snake capable of killing people who stare into its eyes— was released in Hogwarts. Although some were hurt, we were able to salvage the situation with one single casualty. Our staff is prepared to deal with most magical accidents, do not underestimate us."

"I am not!" Elsa exclaimed, exasperated, and turned to look at the annoyed face of her teacher. "But you haven't had other students with powers like mine. Frøker Dumbledore told me I was different." It was strictly the truth. The headmaster was actually answering her mother's question when he said they had no record of a student capable of working with one exclusive sort of magic from the moment they were born.

While the great majority would start at the age of 7, however, there were rare cases of children who had been born with a rare gift and were talented in one way or another. Even those, however, would be seen performing other types of magic by the age of 11. Not only Elsa was part of the second group, but she had only displayed a talent to perform one type of magic: something Dumbledore hadn't heard of since he had started his teaching career at Hogwarts.

For a reason, McGonagall was clearly surprised by Elsa's outburst, her eagerness to explain herself. It took the girl a little while before she realized that the reaction didn't match the passive way she had been behaving since she first set her feet in Hogwarts. The teacher recovered fast, however. "While your magic is something we know very little about, we have heard of injuries such as your sister's. It is unfortunate that nobody from our world became aware of what happened since it is rather simple to be cured."

Elsa shook her head, she had trouble believing what McGonagall was saying. If the context of her magic was so non-ordinary, it was reasonable to think that it was somewhat unpredictable. The professor was having none of it, however. "Dropping out of school for such am irrational reason is beneath you, miss Kyrre," was, finally, her irritated response to the girl's request to go home.

"While _I_ believe it's counterproductive to keep you here without your consent, your parents were adamant about your presence here and, believe me, it was difficult enough for professor Dumbledore and them to deal with the political implications. For now, I advise you to give us a _chance_ and trust that we are aware of your magic and prepared to deal with the consequences of freezing spells if you lose control."

Again, Elsa had no words to respond to the teacher, knowing that she was being severe but honest. Her parents _demanded_ her presence in the school since it was an opportunity to give her the control necessary for her to be able to be a stable queen in the future. As the princess was at that point, scared and eager to isolate herself, it would be impossible for her to reign. The girl lowered her head to hide the tears that had started flooding her eyes. They were pointless and a waste of time, she knew, since her future was determined for her. There was nothing to be done about it.

"Madam Pomfrey has agreed to let you stay here for the night, but you are waited in your classes tomorrow and the presence in the dorms is mandatory to _all_ the students from nine at night to five in the morning. I expect no less than a perfect attendance from now on, Miss Kyrre, and advise you to stick to the friends you are making, companionship is an important part of your education in this school."

Although Elsa didn't turn to look at her, she heard the professor getting up. "Your plate and glass will be filled every time you empty them, but I advise you to take it easy. Once you finish, leave the trail on your nightstand and Madam Pomfrey will take care of it by the morning."

McGonagall paused after a few seconds, seeming to consider her next words: "it's not the end of the world. You already made quite a good impression on your classmates and Head of the House, Professor Flitwick has expressed his desire to work on your magic with, and Professor Sinistra has heard of your perfect scores in mathematics and physics. From where I stand, it looks like you fit very well at Hogwarts. I only hope you realize it soon."

Again, Elsa made no commentary. Not only she didn't know what to say, the tears were also keeping her from finding her voice and her mind was too clouded for her to come up with the right words in English. "Now, try eating with moderation and getting some sleep, will you?" At that, McGonagall got up and left the princess alone with her own thoughts. And, indeed, she had many of those.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! How are you all?
> 
> I am so happy about the response I've been receiving! Thank you all who reviewed, sent kudos, followed, and bookmarked this story!
> 
> The translations. "Han er søt!" means "He is cute!". "De tror jeg er dum" means "They think I'm stupid". "Hvor er jeg?" means "Where am I?". "Hvor er hanskene mine?!" means "where are my gloves?!". "Frøker" means "Professor".
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this one. As promised, the next chapter will see a small time-jump.
> 
> Regards!


	5. The Space Between

Elsa must have been quite tired after the conversation with Professor McGonagall, because it hadn't taken her long before she fell asleep. As a result, when she woke up the following morning, the girl was well-rested despite the growing anxiety in her chest. Luckily, the nurse, a nice but strict woman called Madam Pomfrey, took pity on her after realizing how she was dreading the notion of eating at the Great Hall and allowed the girl to have her breakfast in the Hospital Wing.

Therefore, Elsa was well-rested and well-fed when she walked into the classroom and, at that moment, she realized how much difference it made to her. Despite her pounding heart and trembling hands, the girl was able to adopt an accepting attitude toward the fact that she couldn't walk away from the classes until she was able to convince her parents to withdraw her from the school. For once, the notion that she had no other choice caused a level of peace of mind.

Elsa arrived much earlier to class and, although some of her classmates were already there at the time, Adie, Tonks, and Adam were nowhere to be seen. Only a few minutes before the lecture started that the trio walked into the classroom and, relieved to see the princess, walked straight toward her. 

Ignoring, for the first time, the girl's desire not to be touched, Tonks wrapped her arms around her waist in a tight hug that lasted a few tense seconds in which Elsa had been too surprised to return.  Then, flushing a little for her impulsive hug, the pink-haired girl apologized profusely for her laughter on the previous day, explaining that she had found amusing Elsa's desire to please her parents while so far away from them, but wouldn't dream of thinking less of her for it.

Once that was explained, the three friends began questioning Elsa about her whereabouts on the previous day. While the princess felt overwhelmed and guilty about the concern they had felt, torn between her desire to explain and unwillingness to tell them about her magic, she was also having trouble finding the words in English that clarified what happened but still kept her powers a secret. After a few seconds, the silence started making the others even more anxious.

Luckily, Professor Scamander interrupted them by starting his class and, afterward, the three children came to a silent agreement of not inquiring any more so they didn't disturb Elsa further. While unsure about how her new friends could have been so understanding, the princess gladly accepted their generosity and promised herself to trust their good intentions in the future.

Thus, instead of questioning Elsa, the trio spent the break between the two first classes of the day telling the princess what happened after she ran. They explained how they had noticed that Elsa had been absent from lunch, McGonagall's first lesson, and supper. It was Tonks who told her how terrified they had been when she had also failed to return to their dorm before curfew and was nowhere to be found when they had woken up the following morning.

They had been feeling so bad that Tonks sought Professor McGonagall, who happened to be the girl's godmother, to ask for help. It was only then that they discovered that Elsa  _ had  _ been found on the previous night. However, the teacher had explained, she had been taken to the Hospital Wing since, although well enough to sleep on her own bed, the staff didn't want to disturb the other students after a long first day by sending her to the dorm so late.

The knowledge of what happened made Elsa even more conscious of the trio's kindness toward her. Once again, she vowed not to doubt their intentions in the future and promised herself to trust their friendship.

As time went by, Elsa found herself growing more and more comfortable around her Adam, Tonks, and Adie. Indeed, the princess soon discovered that, while it was difficult to keep her classmates from finding out about her powers, having friends around meant she had backup as well as mental, emotional, and physical protection. Whenever Elsa was tired or wanted to be left alone, the other three shielded her or covered her absence; if she had trouble with homework, they offered to help her before she exhausted herself trying to ask them.

Although Elsa was growing to enjoy the company of Adie and Tonks, Adam was the only person at school who she was capable of feeling completely at ease around. Despite his bright personality and energetic approach in life, his awkwardness and overall silliness betrayed how shy he was. Much like the princess had been close to Anna despite the different personalities and tastes, Adam and his twin brother Elliott were each other's confidants and playmates even though the latter was a muggle and much more of an athletic type. 

It was not only in his relationship with his brother, however, that Adam's life mirrored Elsa's. Since he had also been born as a muggle, the boy had the experience of childhood when he was the odd one out for reasons nobody could explain. Although the princess' powers had left no room for her parents to deny the existence of magic, the fact that the girl was the only human they knew who could perform it set her apart from other people.

The two muggle-born in the group also shared an astonishment toward every new experience in the magical world. Although Adam was much more receptive to witchcraft than Elsa, he was the one who came closest to understanding her reluctance since he knew how magic hadn't been natural in the world they had been born into. In addition to that, the boy understood and shared the princess' preference for certain muggle objects, such as pens and paper notebooks, as well as her long for electronic devices such as telephones. 

Adam also reminded Elsa a lot of Anna; they both had joyful and curious nature that often kept them in trouble. Much like her sister, her friend loved books and was artistic-inclined in a non-intellectual manner. They were addicted, actually, to the feelings that works of art and literature caused in them. The similarities often triggered her protective nature, putting Elsa in a position to shield him from the consequences of his clumsy and restless curiosity. 

On the other hand, Tonks, whose first name Elsa discovered to be Nymphadora, seemed to be a rule-breaker by nature. Unlike Adam and Elsa, she enjoyed being in the center of attention in order to have fun and make people laugh, which she considered being the  _ right  _ reasons. Although some of the more lenient teachers seemed to find her amusing and refrain from punishing her as long as she kept her pranks safe and outside the classroom, the other members of the staff—in special Filch, the caretaker, and Professors Snape and McGonagall—took turns filling the girl's nights with detentions.

Tonks, however, was the perfect balance between easy-going and hardworking, a restless trouble-maker who was also a talented student. Her grades were only matched by Harold MacDougal from Ravenclaw and Emily Stewart from Slytherin. Despite her abilities and close relationship with Professor McGonagall, the girl's best and favorite subject was Defense Against the Dark Arts, which she considered fundamental to fulfill her dream of becoming an Auror.

The desire to join the task force that combated dark wizards came from the connection Tonks' had with the Blacks, a family composed of witches and wizards who were very enthusiastic about the use of dark magic. Knowing that close relatives, such as her mother's sister Bellatrix, were responsible for killing hundreds of innocents created in the pink-haired girl a longing for giving back to society, to right the wrongs of the Blacks.

Not that Tonks had any contact with that side of her family since it was composed of blood-purists who despised muggles and hated muggle-borns. After her mother had married the muggle-born Edward Tonks, she had been disowned, which made Elsa think of her friend as something close to a disowned nobility. The Blacks were, after all, one of the oldest, richest, and most traditional families in the British wizarding world; they were as respected as nobles would be in Arendelle.

For that reason, Elsa felt nearly no guilt about hiding her royal status from Tonks. Since the metamorphmagus took pride in not being a Black, the princess was worried that her friend would see her in a different manner if she ever told her. Luckily, between classes, pranks, and detention, Tonks had little time to pay attention to whatever Elsa was trying to hide. 

When accompanied by Adie, she became a force no one was ever able to contain. While Tonks was an enthusiastic rule-breaker but capable of behaving enough in an important lecture even if only to be able to pass the exams, the blonde girl was talkative, restless, and absent-minded to the point of being unable to stand still in her chair for too long and, much to the teachers' annoyance, would often disrupt the classes by tapping her feet or her hands while mumbling a song to herself. 

The dreadful Potion Master, Professor Snape, was particularly impatient, which meant Adie wouldn't go through one single class without losing a handful of points for Hufflepuff or a week without getting at least a one-night detention. However, regardless of how many points she lost for their house, nobody could stay mad at Adie for too long. Joyful and full of energy, she would bring a smile from even the most sullen person. Her likable personality made her popular among her peers and even older students, some of which going through great lengths to protect her—and sometimes Tonks, since they were often paired in their mischief—from the staff's wraith.

Although Adie had, like Tonks, a pureblood and a muggle-born as parents, her upbringing had been much different. First, the blonde girl had never attended a muggle school; instead, as it was more common in the wizarding world, her parents took turns teaching her siblings and her their letters and everything that would come in handy once they started attending Hogwarts. 

In addition to that, no one in Adie's family thought much of marrying a muggle or a muggle-born and, as a consequence, she was close to all of her grandparents, uncle, aunt, and first cousins. Unlike the Tonk's pure-blood relatives, the Greens were not in the list of the so-called sacred twenty-eight due to the intermarriages and the birth of several half-bloods such as Adie.

However, much like Tonks struggled to keep it from her classmates and teachers at her muggle school, Adie suffered from having to hide it from her muggle cousins and more distant relatives. Therefore, although she hadn't told them about the accident with Anna—or the nature of her magic—, Elsa was glad and relieved to know that there were people who had gone through problems similar to her own. Their slips were far from as extreme as the princess', but they still found themselves in trouble sometimes.

Having that in common, the relationship between the four friends grew tighter. Even though Elsa wasn't comfortable about revealing her powers and her status as a noble to them—and they seemed to know that she was hiding _something_ —, she hadn't felt this close or comfortable around anyone besides her sister and parents.

Much to the girl's astonishment, the barrier caused by language and cultural differences didn't get in the way of their friendship. Noticing that Elsa was afraid that her customs would scare away her friends, Adie and Tonks had explained that they had been prepared by their open-minded parents to meet people who had been raised as muggles and had no previous knowledge of magic, thus coming from a completely different background from theirs. To them, some of Elsa's behaviors were as weird as Adam's.

When the three girls turned to the boy as if asking if the princess' habits bothered her, he only shrugged and responded that he found them as funny and strange as other wizards'. Adam, as well, had gone to the school with an open-minded mindset, aware that he would find himself in a world he wasn't used to. In many senses, Elsa was much more normal than Adie and Tonks; although he admitted that he found her behaviors a bit odd sometimes.

Elsa, on the other hand, was having some trouble adapting to some of the roughest differences between lives in Arendelle and in Hogwarts. While the language had been the strongest of the barriers in her first month as it made communicating with others quite a challenge, as she grew used to the usage of words and sentences, other issues became more prominent.

First, the lack of electricity and overall technology was disconcerting. In the muggle world, the electronics were changing the daily life of the people in Arendelle more and more. Her father had told her about the giant computers he had seen when he visited a university a few years before, and there was no question that the television and telephones were protagonists in the lives of most of the Arendellians. Elsa wasn't herself much into technology, preferring her books as entertainment, but she missed reading under a light bulb—much more powerful than the candlelight that was in vogue in the wizarding world.

She had never truly grown used to quills and parchments. Although her teachers measured the size of the essays they requested, which left her with no other choice but to use them on such occasions, the princess still preferred using the regular fountain pen and paper to take notes and write letters. While Tonks and Adie found great amusement in her resistance, Adam followed her lead by sending a letter to his parents in a request for more notebooks and a few ballpoint pens. 

Another point of great struggle for Elsa was the food. Arendellians had a diverse culinary based, in particular, on fish, lamb, and bread. While they had some heavy dishes, the princess had never been quite fond of them, having preferred light meals composed of salads, soup, fish, chicken, and bread. Her only indulgence was chocolate, which was the most important ingredient to her favorite desserts. 

In Hogwarts, however, the diet was quite heavy. Vegetables were only ingredients to meat dishes, bread was present during the breakfast or in meat sandwiches, and she hadn't seen soup being served in the Great Hall. Watching Elsa struggling with food and with the crowds during mealtime, Tonks shared with her a secret her father had passed on from his times at Hogwarts: the way to the kitchens. From then on, the princess started taking all of her meals in the company of charming little creatures that were called house-elves. 

Contrary to most of the humans, they seemed to have a sixth sense to know exactly what she wished for and were eager to comply. So, noticing she needed a quiet place to eat, they settled a table on the corner and let her enjoy her food on her own, going as far as preparing the sort of meal she would have eaten at home. 

Elsa grew to love her time in the kitchens, but, even though the house-elves were respectful towards her desire to be left alone, they were still close-by. Therefore, as good as that hiding place was, it didn't provide her solace at the times she truly needed to be alone; which usually happened after she had spell-casting classes and was in great need to release her powers.

Since Professor McGonagall's words had been imprinted in her brain, Elsa made sure not to miss other classes. That meant that, whenever she had practical lectures, she was forced to spend a great length of time in empty places to release the magic that overflowed from her fingers whenever she held her wand. Soon enough, the girl grew to know by heart the exact classrooms where she could hide and, although they didn't understand why, her friends learned to respect her desire to be alone.

While Elsa found her physical refuges in empty classrooms and the kitchens, her mind met its solace in books. There was a beauty in the form of the tomes found in the Hogwarts library. Unlike muggles, who seemed to have lost most of the art of publishing when it became an industry, wizards were true masters, crafting some of the most beautiful volumes the princess had ever encountered. 

Elsa wasn't as enthusiastic about the content in the books as she was about the art if them, however. Even as she navigated through her favorite topics in magic, Elsa noticed that there was nothing in them that enticed her as much as a mathematical equation or a geometric diagram. Astronomy itself was a great disappointment as it covered only the name and position of celestial bodies, not much was said about their origin or composition, the subject also ignored all the physics, mathematics, and chemistry that involved the studies in the muggle world. 

Such was the princess' disappointment that she sent Tyr, the Northern Hawk Owl her parents had got her when they found out about the wizarding way of exchanging letters, to Arendelle with a request for books on math and astronomy. Two weeks later, she received her old copies of “The Man Who Counted” and “Ingenuity in mathematics” as well as the newly-published “Search of Schrödinger's Cat”. The books helped her feel closer to home and quieted her mind whenever the constant presence of people and the pressure of keeping her magic at bay for countless hours were too much.

Neither Tonks nor Adam, who had studied math before arriving at Hogwarts, could understand the girl's enthusiasm about it. The girl, however, noticed that the objective nature of the subject kept her mind simultaneously focused and at ease. In magic, there was often a level of uncertainty that she usually didn't find in her math problems—although the science was far less objective than people often thought it was.

Still in the early phases of their education, however, the Hogwarts first-years were much more interested in subjects such as Charms and Transfiguration, that were promising to involve some heavy wand work. Another favorite of most of them was Flying, a class they had started on their second week at Hogwarts and which they took with the Ravenclaw students. 

While broom flight was news to the muggle-borns, most of the students who had been raised by wizards were used to flying. Every one of them was excited for their first class, though, since first-years couldn't bring their own brooms to school and had to fight each other for the school's since there weren't enough to cover the number of students who didn't have their own. The class was an opportunity for all who were passionate about flying to have a go, even if the Hogwarts' brooms were far from efficient.

Funnily enough, despite how much time people who were born in families of wizards claimed to have spent flying, the only ones who hadn't needed any sort of prompt from their professor, Madam Hooch, were Adam and a Ravenclaw muggle-born called Lauren Thompson. The art of moving on a broom came as an instinct to both of them, much to the astonishment of their classmates who had been flying for the past ten years.

Elsa, as well, found herself at home in the air. Perhaps in a manifestation of her magic, the wind responded well to the happiness and freedom she felt on a broom, playing with her. Although she wasn't as skilled as Adam, the princess was fond of the Flying classes since they involved a very individual activity and most of the students were too focused on performing the movements Madam Hooch taught them to pay much attention to her.

Another one of Elsa's favorites was Potions, which was the exact opposite to how most of her classmates felt about the class. In fact, despite being one of the most practical subjects in their curriculum, Potions became one of the least favorite subjects due to the professor's methods and overall behavior towards his students. Severus Snape was the youngest member of the staff, having graduated only six years previous, but his short-tempered and resentful attitude made his classes a very particular torture to most of the Hogwarts students.

Far from discouraged by the terrible atmosphere caused by the professor's bad attitude, Elsa committed herself to pass unnoticed in the classroom by staying quiet on a corner and studying enough on her own to be able to perform well in class without the interference of the teacher. That plan, however, was deemed to fail since the man was quite pleased at her independent behavior;  being the top Potions student in Hufflepuff drew his attention in a positive matter. She was, therefore, the only one to ever receive points from Snape or get Outstanding results from her homework, which he often praised for her methodical and straightforward approach.

It was a striking contrast from what he thought of Tonks and Adie, who had earned a large collection of detentions from him for the most diverse—and sometimes creative—reasons. Adam, on the other hand, was convinced that the teacher was a vampire and tried to stay on his good graces. Whenever someone tried to dissuade him from this idea, he only stated that if Dumbledore could allow a ghost to teach, he could very much hire a vampire. "Don't say I didn't warn you when he turns you into one of them!" 

Another class Elsa was growing to enjoy was Herbology. While the subject interested her only to a certain point, Professor Sprout never failed to make her feel safe and at home. On the second day of classes, she had sat with Elsa after her lessons to discuss the girl's anxiety towards her magical abilities. She had agreed with Professor McGonagall that her irrational fears were something the staff was ready and eager to help her with, but was much gentler and patient in her approach.

Professor Sprout kept that kind attitude in every contact with all of the students. She seemed to be the embodiment of what it meant to be a Hufflepuff, valuing the work of each one of her pupils and taking the time necessary to make sure every one of them understood her lessons. It was a refreshing attitude compared to the overwhelming strictness from Snape and the no-nonsensical approach from McGonagall.

After the first day of class, Professor Sprout was careful not to ask from Elsa more than she could handle. While she often encouraged each of the students to get their hands dirty—which she considered being a sign of good work done—, she allowed the princess to divide and conquer with Tonks, who was her pair in the class, knowing that she was scared of hurting the plants. Therefore, the Metamorphomagus usually tended to them while Elsa took notes and filled the exercises. 

To keep track of the girl's issues with magic, Professor Sprout arranged to meet Elsa at least once each two weeks to discuss it. Although she was wary about them at first, the princess had grown to enjoy them after a while since the teacher never went too far with her request and because the meetings usually involved some tea and chocolate. 

Later on, she found out that the Head of Hufflepuff often arranged meetings with first-year muggle-borns to make sure they were adapting well to life in Hogwarts. The professor also had regular meetings with trouble-makers from her house in an attempt to win them over, the Hufflepuff quidditch players to make sure they are taking their studies seriously, and all the students who showed a special affinity to the subject she taught. 

As much as she dreaded admitting it, however, Elsa knew that Professor McGonagall's approach had also been, in a way, effective. Like Snape, the Transfiguration teacher was straight-forward and admitted no non-senses in her classroom. While she pushed each of her students to do the best they could, she was kind and attentive to the ones who had trouble in her class by spending more time with them and repeating herself as many times as they needed her to. 

Professor McGonagall praised Elsa's theoretical work despite her failure in the practice of magic and, knowing of the princess' preference towards mathematics, tried to make her subject more approachable by lending her books that approached Transfiguration through a way that much resembled the geometry she had studied at home. 

She also offered Elsa the opportunity to discuss her trouble with magic by asking her to stay after class and, when the princess accidentally slipped how holding her wand often made her magic overflow, the teacher allowed her to free it in her classroom in the evening. Since the place would be empty, it was no trouble at all, as long as she didn't miss the curfew. 

It was helpful not only because it was a way for Elsa to release her magic in a rather safe environment without having to search for an empty classroom, but also because it made her trust McGonagall and realize that the teacher also trusted her. Even on the rare occasions when her magic damaged something, the teacher only brushed it off and fixed it right away.

McGonagall wasn't Elsa's only surprise. The girl was astonished when she found out that, although Professor Flitwick had never gone as far as scheduling biweekly meetings, the Charms Master was as kind and attentive as Professor Sprout. Much like the Transfiguration teacher, he didn't mind taking the time explaining and helping the students who had issues completing the exercises. When a student showed particular trouble with a spell, he asked them to remain after class to try finding the problem.

Like Professor McGonagall had stated during their conversation in the Hospital Wing, Professor Flitwick was very enthusiastic about working on Elsa's magic with her. Therefore, a lthough self-conscious, she knew by then that the person to seek when all her resources dwindled was Professor Flitwick. The man was clearly a theorist, but his class had a strong practical approach that left no doubt that he valued the proces s of learning about magic by actually practicing it. In addition to that, she didn't truly want to  _ discuss  _ her magic with other people, preferring to learn it on her own. 

However, despite the fact how taken aback the princess was by Professor Flitwick's teaching method and scared that he would force her to talk about her magic if she was the first one to approach him with the problem, the only other option she could think of was looking aimlessly through the thousands and thousands of volumes at the library. So, gathering the courage to act despite her concerns, the girl approached the teacher's table after one class in her second week at the school to ask for guidance. 

It had been a difficult theoretical class entailing the basics of wand-usage: the right way to hold and keep it, some cleaning methods, and elementary wand-safety. They had to hold their wands and practice each of the exercises proposed by the professor. Although it had awoken her magic, it was much easier than whenever she was forced to practice a spell, which meant the princess was exhausted by the end of the class, but had some presence of mind to handle a conversation. 

Having asked her friends not to wait for her, the girl remained sitting by her desk until the classroom was empty. Then, with shaking hands and a deep frown, she headed to the front of the classroom, from where Flitwick was watching her with curiosity. She hadn't failed to notice that, despite the fact that he had only broached the subject a few times and just briefly, the teacher had been watching her throughout his lectures.

“Professor, hi— huh— I was wondering— I wanted to know if— may I ask you something about— an extra topic?” Her cheeks flushed in a deep shade of red and she refused to meet the teacher's eyes, but Elsa was glad to hear her own speech, more solid and clear than it had been in her first weeks in the castle. 

“Miss Kyrre,” the professor's voice, as well as the pause between her request and his response, betrayed his surprise. He recovered fast, however, and his delightment was evident in his next words, “yes, yes, of course! What would you like to know?”

“Well, it is— on the subject of magic without a wand,” the princess swallowed hard. Would he ask her about her magic? Would he consider that an invitation to talk about the incident in the classroom or, worse, the accident with Anna? It was too late to back down, but she chose her next words carefully: “I mean— I have noticed some magical humans use wands for spells, while other people— like Tonks or—” she shook her head, deciding against mentioning herself, “well,  _ some  _ people don't need it.”

As he was making sure she had finished her question, it took a few seconds before the professor started speaking. “Well, Miss Kyrre, I'm afraid wandless magic is a rather broad subject. There are those born with particular skills and certain spells that require no wand, but, albeit difficult to the average witch and wizard, wandless spells are a form of magic everyone can achieve and control. It is, indeed, taught in the seventh year Hogwarts if you choose to continue your studies in Charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts. Can you, perhaps, specify your question further?”

Elsa hadn't expected that, for sure. After seeing the affinity most people felt toward their wands, she had thought wandless magic was a rare occurrence—at least among the humans. “I— didn't realize all could do spells without a wand,” the girl finally looked up at the teacher, meeting his curious and delighted glance. “Professor Dumbledore told me—” she shook her head, still unwilling to talk about her magic. “I would like to know about people who were born with this— talent.”

Although she flushed throughout the exchange and was incapable of maintaining eye contact, the princess didn't find it difficult to keep her head up. The professor was smiling with interest, but, in a gesture of kindness, hadn't pressed the matter of her powers, “I see. Well, there are hundreds— perhaps even thousands of such talents, not all of them registered or understood. Miss Tonks' gift, for example, is rare— in a once in a generation level, perhaps— but has been widely studied. Parseltongue— that is, the ability to speak with snakes, is much rarer and hasn't been broadly researched due to prejudices, I'm afraid.”

The examples given by the professor enticed Elsa's curiosity, making her eyes grow wide and her mouth open slightly, although no sound came from it. For that reason, when Flitwick finished his answer and made a pause—perhaps in a silent request for her to elaborate her question deeper—, Elsa only looked wishful at him as if begging for him to continue talking. 

The professor must have understood the reason behind her lack of response since he giggled softly, stood up, and walked toward one of the shelves behind his desk. It only took a few seconds to locate the exact book he was looking for: a thin tome. “Here you go. The title is mouthful, I know, but the language is quite simple and straight-forward. It doesn't require much previous knowledge of magic, so I think you will have no trouble reading it.” 

Then, still grinning, the professor handed the book to Elsa, who studied it with an ever-growing curiosity. The golden inscription on its green cover said: “ _ The Guide for the Most Common Magical Gifts in the Hogwarts' Archives _ , by Archibald Williams”. Yes, it was a mouthful for such a small volume, but that didn't discourage her at all. 

Smiling back and holding the book against her chest, Elsa thanked the professor and headed out of the room and to the kitchens, where she was planning to get some reading done during lunchtime. Eating, however, became a secondary concern once the princess started the book. Not only it had a rather easy vocabulary—similar to her school books'—, it also had some intriguing information that kept the girl's attention so fixed that the elves had to call her so she didn't lose the time for her next class.

In the following few days, Elsa learned the very basics about the six most common types of wandless magical gifts appearing in the Hogwarts archives from the Middle Ages to the year of 1949, when the book's author had deemed his research completed. Those were ink magic, precognitive sight, elemental, alluring, mind control, and shape-shifting.

Atramagi, the most common type of magicians gifted with wandless magic, were the ones capable of canalizing magic through ink by drawing figures or writing a text. While impractical in many situations, such abilities were useful to break curses and spells when the caster had enough time in their hands. They had also proved to have some interesting effects when brewing certain potions. Although there were those who were born with such a gift and had no trouble drawing magic even from regular writing, ink magic was taught to all the students who decided to take a class called Ancient Runes. 

The precognitive sight was also rather common, appearing more than once each generation in various degrees of power. Although it was a genetic trait that would usually appear just in the oldest magical families, there were cases of muggle-born witches and wizards possessing such a gift. There was an elective class in Hogwarts called Divination, that focused on teaching about that field. Archibald Williams was, however, skeptical about the possibility of learning such skill.

Alluring and other forms of mind control were, as well, not uncommon talents. However, wizards and witches who possessed it were quite scarce in Hogwarts' records due to the high death rate of such magicians. Parents usually preferred to keep the few children who survived to become adolescents safe at home to avoid the overall prejudice they suffered from the wizarding community.

On the other hand, while unbelievably rare, Metamorphmagi appeared at least once every two or three generations of students at Hogwarts' archives since the parents of such magical children were eager to have them learn how to control their magic. Although the author hadn't investigated it, he believed that most of the British Metamorphs had been enrolled in the school since teachers had usually more success helping these students to train the skill than their families.

Then, finally, the closest type of wandless magic to Elsa's was the one related to the elements. While there were not as many as Atramagi and Seers, Elementals were also quite common, figuring in the Hogwarts' records at least once every thirty or forty years. However, while some had more affinity to one element or two, all of the cases registered in Hogwarts' records were of those capable of controlling each and every one of them. 

Since her powers were related to cool weather, Elsa had an obvious kinship with the elements of water and air. However, she was only capable of cooling it to create snow and ice, being unable to transform it into liquid or gas. That, and the fact that she had no affinity with fire or earth, meant her powers weren't  _ quite  _ related to the elements as much as they were to the weather.

Since her magic had no relation to the ones that figured in the book, Elsa hadn't a path in mind when she returned the book to Professor Flitwick. He, however, was ready for her lack of ideas on how to proceed and lent her two new volumes after listening to her new interest: one regarding the role of Elementals in druidic magic by one Talon Scott and the other a published copy of the diary of a young Metamorph called Trinity Kane.

It was a clear attempt to figure out where her interests were lying without having to push a subject she didn't want to talk about. His knowing smile left no room for her to doubt that he was aware that her interests weren't purely academic, but he was willing to play the silence game with her. Although Elsa was concerned that he would grow tired of trying to figure out her wishes, she was relieved that he was trying to respect her boundaries for now.

As Elsa started her new readings, the reason behind Professor Flitwick's choices became clearer to her. While the thick diary was a rather light reading since the author was only a few years older than herself, the much thinner book about the fundamentals of druidic proved to be harder due to the academic usage of the language by the author. Although Elsa was growing more and more confident about her proficiency in English, she was far from that level of understanding.

It didn't help that the author advocated in favor of a necessary connection between religion and witchcraft, an idea that the princess felt skeptical about. Although she was raised Christian and considered herself too ignorant to be able to deny the existence of a God, the knowledge taught in Hogwarts seemed to have no roots in religious practices, which made the book's argument quite unconvincing. Suspicious, Elsa had trouble focusing enough to fully understand the content.

Ultimately, the princess gave up, realizing she didn't care enough about the knowledge in the book to sacrifice the precious time she had to work on her research reading it. After all, she was reaching a breaking point as the classes were growing harder and the long periods in the company of others were becoming extremely stressful despite the time she spent alone in empty classrooms. Finally, Elsa realized that it was ridiculous to add a book full of what she considered to be nonsense to the equation.

Far from upset, Professor Flitwick was amused and refused to receive the book from her. “You don't understand why I lent you this one, do you?” The man asked with a tiny smile on his lips that only grew when the princess shook her head in response. “I figured— well, perhaps this will clarify it,” he drew his wand and pointed to one of the piles of books on a shelf behind his desk, muttering an incantation that sent the one on top flying straight on Elsa's hand: “ _ Magic and Intent: A Theory _ , by Miranda Goshawk”.

“Oh!” The sight of Miranda Goshawk's name caused a relieved smile on the princess' lips; it was quite familiar to every Hogwarts student since that was the author of their Charms' textbooks. “Intent— Kane said that the details were more perfect when she shifted into a professor to sneak herself out of the school than when her feelings caused her to morph. She said— it was her attention to the details. Could it be— intent?”

Flitwick considered the question, “it's a theory we cannot discard. Intent is not  _ everything _ , mind you, but you will realize in this class that it  _ is _ important. In this work, Goshawk argued that intent is as important as visualization and proposes a few exercises to prove it. It is not a big revelation in the field, but I find the way she explains it and the activities she offers elucidating.”

Elsa had to think about the man's words before she realized she didn't know where he was going. How could a theory about intent help her understand the type of magic that people are born with, the kind that came naturally, instinctively? Yet, she could see how this could explain the importance of the book about druidic magic since religion is raw intention sometimes. Therefore, she took Goshawk's and Scott's books with her without further protest.

The following weeks, however, proved to be so eventful that there was little time for Elsa to work on her extra readings. Professor Flitwick started teaching the levitation spell  _ Wingardium Leviosa _ , which presented a new level of challenge to Elsa. More stressed than she could remember ever being, the princess had to wear two layers of gloves on each hand to avoid freezing her wand and was required to spend hours alone in an empty classroom releasing her magic. 

McGonagall, on the other hand, asked them to perform as homework a series of complex exercises applying the transfiguration formula to transform a match into a needle. The activities weren't nerve-wracking to Elsa since they were theoretical, but they still demanded a long time to be completed and required the princess' full attention.

Another theoretical work that kept Elsa and her classmates occupied for a long time was Astronomy's. Satisfied with the students' progress with the basics of sky observation, Professor Sinistra asked them to draw a map of the sky through the course of the week. All of them were required to visit the Tower every night before the curfew to get a picture of what they should be drawing.

Finally, Professor Snape asked them to write a long essay listing the twelve uses of dragon blood in potions. Since the book only covered the basics—not nearly enough to fill the pages the professor requested—, the students were required to look for extra sources at the library under the severe gaze of Madam Pince, the librarian.

The work was so intensive and Elsa's level of stress was so high that there were a few times when the princess had almost lost control over her power in the presence of her friends. Luckily, the weather was becoming colder at the proximity of winter and the trio didn't think much of the sudden drops of temperature.

Before the princess realized it, Hallowe'en had arrived and, with it, a new set of problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, y'all. How's it going?
> 
> Thank you all who read this fic up to this point!
> 
> So... I am sorry it took so long to bring this chapter to you. To be honest, I am not happy about it but didn't want to make you wait even longer. What you see is the third version, which is the cleanest I could get it to be. 
> 
> As the name of the chapter hints, this is an interlude that covers Elsa's first two months at Hogwarts, which are fairly bittersweet. You might have noticed there's no Norwegian in this chapter, which is a nod to how she was growing used to English. She is also, by now, as comfortable as she can be around her friends considering that she is hiding two secrets from them, one of them threatening to be exposed whenever she was stressed, scared, or tired. 
> 
> Finally, I know I ended the chapter abruptly. There are two reasons for that. 1) I had to cut short because it was growing very long; 2) It felt like an appropriate cliffhanger. I hope you like it...
> 
> Stay safe in these difficult times. I hope to see you soon.


	6. Toil and Trouble

The coming Hallowe'en brought a new set of complications to Elsa's life. First, Professor Scamander finally decided that it was time for the first-years to learn some offensive spells and announced he would be teaching them the Knockback Jinx in the following class, happening the day before the holiday.

Elsa immediately sent Tyr back home to ask her parents to sign her off of such classes, stating that they were unnecessary since the guards and officers of the castle were more than prepared to defend her in case of an attack. In addition to that, a duelling practice was somewhat dangerous considering that her classmates would be aiming her.

Of course, practising such spells in a classroom was far less dangerous than other activities she had at Hogwarts; flying, for example, was much more life-threatening. However, considering that Anna had been kept by her parents from learning sword-fighting exactly because it was dangerous, the Crown Princess was hopeful they would forbid her from the equivalent in the wizarding world.

As Elsa had predicted, her mother contacted the Headmaster promptly. According to Professor Sprout, who asked the princess to stay after class a few days after she had sent the letter, the Queen—and her husband, although he hadn't been present for the discussion—understood the need for defensive lessons, but she wasn't willing to allow the teacher to put their beloved daughter and heir in front of an inexperienced student's aim.

To Elsa's dismay, however, Professor Dumbledore and the Queen of Arendelle came to an agreement: the princess would be allowed to attend the classes as long as she was always paired with the teacher and stayed out of the area of danger. Reluctant about the solution found by Elsa's mother and the Headmaster, Professor Sprout told her that this sort of special treatment would call the attention of the other students and that she should be prepared to answer their questions.

Indeed, once they left their very first practical class on the Knockback Jinx, Elsa's friends had many of those. Since Adie had decided Adam was an easier opponent to beat and dragged him to a corner of the classroom to practice, Tonks was forced to pair with a Gryffindor named Charles Weasley when the teacher asked the princess to wait by his desk while he watched the students' first attempts.

In her annoyance about being unable to practise with a friend, the metamorph forgot her usual gentle approach towards Elsa and tried pressuring her for answers. Tonks refused to believe in the princess when she explained that there was an odd number of students in the class since, according to her, Elsa hadn't been the last one to find a pair and Professor Scamander had seemed to have the intention to pull her apart from the others from the start.

Before Elsa could reply, however, Adam rescued her by commenting that the decision was probably caused by Elsa's issues with casting spells. While they hadn't had any practical exercises in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class before, Professor Scamander could have talked with Flitwick or McGonagall, who would have told him about Elsa's issues on performing magic. He had, most likely, tried to teach her in private to make sure she would learn the spell.

Of course, that raised the _other_ questions Elsa had been having trouble answering: the ones regarding the absurd disparity between the levels of her practical and theoretical works. Luckily, however, as baffled as they were, her friends didn't expect Elsa to have an answer for that particular puzzle since they had no reason to believe she would fail on purpose. All she had to do was to stay in silence while they speculated.

The second complication Hallowe'en had bought was the feast itself. Since Tonks had told her how to get into the kitchens, Elsa had managed to stay clear from the Great Hall during the busiest hours by taking most of her meals with only the elves as a company. Even though it hadn't been explicitly spoken, however, it was obvious that she was expected to attend the dinner celebration and enjoy the food with the rest of the school. The perspective was dreadful.

Despite the growing excitement in the castle, however, the day of Hallowe'en started quite normal. As it happened on every Wednesday, the Hufflepuff first-years had History of Magic on their first period, Charms on their second, and double Potions in the afternoon. As usual, Elsa had enjoyed comparing Professor Binns' views with the content of her textbooks even though the teacher sounded a bit boring. They had been studying the wizarding rebellion during the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton, who had banished every practice of magic that wasn't related to the worship of the god Aten.

Although the knowledge wasn't useful at all to Elsa, she couldn't help but find the subject quite interesting. It reminded her of the discussion she had had with Professor Flitwick about magic, intent, and its relation to druidic magical practices, as well as the brief pieces she had had the opportunity to read in the past few weeks. If the wizarding world in Ancient Egypt worked so close to religion and intent was as important to magic as the Charms professor and Miranda Goshawk had stated, it was no wonder that there had been many rebellions from the wizarding community.

Busy taking notes of what Professor Binns was saying and the comparisons that were drawn from her own mind, Elsa could forget for a moment that she would be forced to step into the crowded Great Hall in a few hours. Indeed, she was almost looking forward to getting to her next period, Charms, so she could take her new ideas to Professor Flitwick. Almost, because the lecture itself was promising to be a nightmare as it would involve the practice of the wand-lighting incantation, _Lumos_ , the second charm they were learning.

Elsa had managed to avoid wand-practising in the previous class, when, exhausted after spending the previous evening trying to compose a Potion's essay, Elsa had decided to "forget" her wand in her trunk so she wouldn't have to endure one entire class holding it. Although Professor Flitwick hadn't been as amused as the Hufflepuff first-years, he only required her to watch the others while they practised the movement for the wand-lighting spell so she could do it as homework and didn't take any points from her house.

On the day of Hallowe'en, however, Elsa was left with no option but to draw her wand alongside her classmates. The knowing gaze Flitwick had sent her in the previous class left it clear that forgetting the object a second time in a row would be unacceptable. Therefore, with a deep sigh and taking care to hold it softly, Elsa took it from the backpack and placed it on her desk right in front of her.

Contrary to her classmates, who had bought their wands from a man called Ollivanders, Elsa's was a gift from the trolls after they had found out she would be attending a magic school. According to the messenger—a blonde orphan boy named Kristoff, who had been adopted by the trolls—, it was crafted with Gabon ebony wood and had a core made of a Fossegrimmen hair, crystals covering both the tip and handle.

As had happened before, the people around her took a glance at the wand at the moment Elsa let it rest on her desk. The unusual crafting was a source of great interest and curiosity between the other students and members of the staff, more so because its owner left it out of people's sight unless she was forced to use it in class.

To her relief, excited about trying a new spell, their curiosity was brief and they soon diverged their attention into performing the wand-lighting incantation. Tonks, particularly, was so fixated on her goal that she was failing to notice her purple locks becoming lighter and lighter at each passing second. The only person who had realized what was happening was Flitwick, who shared an amused gaze with Elsa when their eyes met.

The hilarious moment passed when the teacher gave Elsa a nod as if asking without words for her to start the exercise. Gulping, the princess looked at her wand and, with some reservation, took it into her shaking hands. As soon as she felt the crystal holder pressed against the white gloves covering her hand, the magic within her awoke at full strength and, in a rush that she could barely stop, covered the object with a thin layer of ice.

Elsa breathed a few times, trying to keep the magic at bay. She could remember Kristoff telling her parents and her about the healing properties of her wand as well as its ability to absorb and transform the magic into its purest state, which didn't explain why it caused such a strong reaction from her magic. That was a mystery only the trolls might be able to solve.

Forcing herself to remain calm despite being on the verge of releasing her magic, Elsa performed the movement she had learned and practised. Then, confident she had done it correctly, the girl left out a long sigh in an attempt to control the raging storm inside her and repeated the move, saying the incantation. As expected, although she had been careful and paid attention to the particularities Professor Flitwick had pointed out when he was correcting her classmates in the previous class, the girl wasn't able to produce even a flick of light.

She had realised before that focusing on locking her magic inside away was conflicting to what she was supposed to be doing, but there was something else getting in the way. After reading Miranda Goshawk's work about the importance of intent for spell-casting, the princess realised that it could have been her _intention_ of not casting magic that was making every one of her attempts useless.

She didn't _want_ to perform well, she didn't _want_ her wand to lighten. Her intention was to keep her magic _locked_ inside. Unless it came from a different source from the magic she was trying to cast, casting magic would be impossible if she didn't let go of her fear.

Despite her reservations about studying magic and her desire to go back to the safety of her own bedroom in Arendelle, a failure was hurtful as it would reflect badly on her country. Being its crown princess and the sole heir of her parents' throne, no less than perfection was expected from her. Even though her parents had been nothing but encouraging, the girl knew she was disappointing them and embarrassing her kingdom.

Nipping her lip and clenching her hand around the wand, Elsa tried to focus on her duty and how much she wanted to make her parents proud. _I_ want _my magic to work_ , the girl tried to convince herself as she released her magic with caution, moving her wand and saying the proper incantation once more. It, again, didn't work.

The girl repeated the action a few more times with no success and dropped the wand on her desk in defeat, gazing at the layer of ice involving it with apprehension. It was a futile effort to even try; all she could do was to hope the grades on the theoretical work would make up for it. Luckily, Elsa wasn't the only one who was having trouble with the spell, which meant Professor Flitwick's attention wasn't on her alone.

The teacher rounded the class, demonstrating the spell and giving new instructions whenever they were needed. It took a while for him to pause on Elsa, giving her time to recover her composure before showing him what she managed to do so far. The girl offered him a pleading gaze that she hoped to convince the man to exempt her from the activity. Either Flitwick didn't notice the meaning behind it or ignored it altogether, because all he did was to nod his head toward the wand.

Nervous, Elsa once again took the wand into her hand. Her magic's response was immediate as the layer of ice grew thicker around her fingers, but she kept a firm grip while gesturing her wrist and lower arm as if drawing a reverse "v" into the air. _Lys opp!_ "L—" Even before the girl was able to finish the word, a blinding light emerged from the tip of her wand for a second.

Already expecting her own failure, however, Elsa was so surprised that she dropped the object, making the light vanish right away. Almost at the same time, the princess' bewilderment died, giving place to horror once she realized her magic spreading from the tip of her fingers up through her lower arm as she, felt her lips hardening as they were covered in ice and saw her own hard breath coming out as vapour. _I need to get away from here._ "T— toilet! May I go to the toilet?"

Professor Flitwick looked at her with concern before conceding it with a nod, "go ahead, Miss Kyrre." There was a silent promise on the teacher's warm gaze that Elsa didn't understand until half an hour later, when she returned, flushed and breathing hard, after destroying half a classroom in the strongest magical outburst she had ever experienced and noticed that none of her classmates was expressing any sort of curiosity toward the unusual way she had performed the spell. _Did he lie to them about what happened?_

The professor also didn't ask her to keep practising or repeat what she had done before, although he kept rounding the class to help the other students. Wearing her hair as white as Elsa's, Tonks offered her an amused gaze and quipped over how magic could make someone's digestion work nicely, which caused the princess' cheeks to grow several shades darker.

"At least she lightened her wand and not her _hair_ , didn't she?" Adie joked, turning back to look at the two other girls. Astonished, Tonks took her hand to her hair, causing the blonde to chuckle, Adam to turn at them and grin, and Elsa to cover her mouth as she giggled. The metamorph soon burst into laughter when she recovered from the revelation's surprise, but didn't change her hair back to purple.

"You're such a bloody ass for not telling me!" Tonks spoke after her laughter lessened enough. "You know that, right?" The metamorph winked at Elsa as if to guarantee that it was just a joke. Ever since the accident on their first day of class, the two other girls had been careful to make sure the princess understood when they were just joking around.

The rest of the lecture went by without further incidents. By the end of it, Elsa's three friends had been able to perform the spell, although Tonks had been the only one to keep her wand lightened for more than a few seconds. The princess had expected Professor Flitwick to question her after the other students left for lunch, but he ended up surprising her. Once a ring announced the end of the class and the four friends started heading out to the kitchens, the teacher did nothing to stop her.

One other practical class filled their afternoon when Professor Snape finally allowed the students to start working on their Forgetfulness Potion, something they had been studying for the past week and were eager to begin their attempts to produce. Their homework had been a research on the ethical usage of the potion, which both the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw first-years agreed to be quite contradictory to the teacher's character.

Although Elsa agreed with her friends that an ethical discussion didn't match well with a professor who had no issues on threatening to poison his students on a regular basis, it became a welcoming intellectual exercise that she could only compare to some of her classes at home—logical yet subjective. Eager to do a good job, the princess spent one evening in the library trying to find information about the laws regarding memory spells and potions.

Much to her surprise and disgust, she found out the wizarding law in Great Britain that wasn't related to the muggle-wizard relationship was unorganized and overall outdated. One particular book she had found criticized the way the Ministry of Magic dismissed many cases of minor memory altering, even when the victim was unwilling.

None of Elsa's friends could understand most of her readings on the subject since, unlike her, they had never come across legal texts before. However, although the three other Hufflepuff had failed to see why the girl was interested in them at first, they were as disgusted as she was by the disregard of the Ministry toward the safety of the wizarding community. With Elsa's help and after debates that lasted several nights, the other three ended up handing to Professor Snape was at least three times longer than their classmates'.

Despite their interest, however, the three Hufflepuff first-years were so exhausted of such a heavy topic that they were glad when the Potion Master deemed the class well-prepared to deal with a practical lesson. Even Elsa, who had enjoyed the exercise despite its revolting conclusion, was excited for her first attempt to produce such a difficult draught.

They weren't discouraged by Professor Snape when he told the class he would be surprised if anyone managed to finish the potion that day. Between preparing ingredients they had never used, mixing them in the right order and way, and letting it on the fire for exact 58 minutes, it would be a close call.

In the end, the professor had been correct. But, while no one had been able to finish the class with a perfect draught, most of the students had no trouble following the instructions. Because it was such a simple and straight-forward concept, Elsa found herself lost in the activity and could once again even let go of the stress caused by the approaching feast.

"Snape must be in a festive mood," laughing, Tonks proclaimed as soon as they were out of the teacher's earshot. "He didn't even give me detention!" After the pink-haired girl grew bored of waiting for the right moment to add the Lethe river water and started morphing her hair to look like the Professor's, he had taken five points from Hufflepuff. It was, however, an improvement from the punishment she had received in his previous lesson: detention for the weekend.

"I hadn't taken him for the type of person who would be cheered by candies." Although sceptical of the Professor's reasons, Adam was also laughing. Since Elsa and he had managed to finish their potion in time with no trouble, Snape had found no reason to look at them at all, which they agreed to be a good thing.

Elsa wasn't so cheerful about the end of the classes since it meant it was time for the students to head back to their Common Room and get ready for the coming feast, which was deemed to start in a couple of hours. Unlike Adie and Tonks, who cared very little about how they presented themselves, the princess took her time making sure her clothes were spotless, her shirt buttoned all the way up her neck and her tie tight enough; her platinum hair was fixed on the perfect bun her mother had taught her to do on her own right before she left for Hogwarts. Presentable as a princess should always be on formal occasions.

At the point when they were about to leave for the feast, all the princess wanted to do was to stay behind and use the opportunity of having an empty Common Room to think about what had happened during the Charms class. Elsa hadn't had time to absorb the way her spell had worked before. She had been in too much of a hurry to go get a grip over her powers in order to be back to class before it was over; then, lunch with her friends and the Potion class kept her mind from focusing on that problem.

She knew, however, that being reclusive and shy wasn't a fit behaviour for the crown princess. Her tutors had always stressed that her presence in a feast held at a foreign country was compulsory since, unless she had an acceptable justification for it—and there weren't many of those—, an absence could be interpreted as an unwelcoming non-diplomatic attitude from her kingdom.

Sensing Elsa's anxiety, Tonks—still wearing the platinum blonde hair colour—wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder as they exited the dorms to meet Adam. Although the princess felt uncomfortable about being touched, the gesture was welcomed as it was a statement of support. _I'm here,_ it had declared. _Thank you,_ it was the response Elsa had tried to communicate by leaning against the metamorph.

Adam was waiting for them at the Common Room in the company of his roommates, Brian Fawley, Christian Merrick, and Sullivan Rowan. "Took you long enough," the red-haired boy told them with a playful smile and the other three boys chuckled, much to Adie's annoyance.

Although Adam preferred hanging out with Elsa, Adie, and Tonks, he was on better terms with his roommates than the girls were with the other three female Hufflepuff first-years. Brian was a slim brown-haired boy who had come from one of the oldest families in the British wizarding world. He had such a grim, serious attitude that Tonks and Adie had taken as a challenge to make him laugh.

Chris was a tall and clumsy boy obsessed with both muggle and wizard sports; Tonks and he often got themselves involved in enthusiastic discussions about the chances of quidditch teams in the British league. He wasn't as much of a sports player as he was an analyst, although he enjoyed being on a broom and had stated more than a handful of times that his favourite class was flying.

Finally, Sully was an intelligent boy who had a great interest in magical creatures since his mother was a magizoologist. He had an obvious infatuation for Tonks that rendered him mute every time she was nearby. Having noticed it, the metamorph was kind enough not to joke about it, although it hadn't stopped her from pranking on him as much as she did on her other classmates.

The seven first-years moved to the Great Hall together. Tonks, her arm around Elsa's, was debating animatedly but friendly the latest football game between Manchester United and Arsenal with Chris while the others were discussing the feast. The only ones who hadn't spoken at all were the princess, who was trying to keep herself from freaking out by focusing on the metamorph's touch, and the red-faced Sully, muted by his crush's presence.

They joined the other Hufflepuff first-years on the far end of their table, close enough to the teachers' to notice Professor Snape's annoyance at Professor Scamander's enthusiastic speech regarding how much he had missed the Hallowe'en feast at Hogwarts. _He is definitely not excited for the candies._ The three remaining girls from their year smiled at them when they sat down, Tonks and Adie making sure to use the boys and Elsa as a barrier.

It wasn't that the two groups of girls hated each other—it was difficult for one to dislike Tonks and Adie—, but the two pranksters had little patience for the type of discussion that the others brought to the table. While Lilith Haynes and Hannah Seward were obsessed with make-up and boys, the only other Hufflepuff muggle-born in their year besides Elsa, Yvonne Young, was a gossiper with a superior attitude.

Since they were common features in girls of noble background, the princess had had to deal with both of the types in the past and, therefore, was able to keep a polite albeit distant attitude when interacting with them. On the other hand, Tonks and Adie couldn't feign interest and had made their boredom clear during the few times one of them had tried to strike a conversation. That had created a distance between them.

Elsa was, however, too nervous about the number of people in the room to pay attention to the space Tonks and Adie had put between themselves and their classmates. The metamorph had released the princess' arm when they sat, sending towards her a careful gaze that she was too anxious to interpret. Elsa's eyes remained on her lap and her lips pressed together while her mind, unable to focus on something else, considered all the worst possible outcomes to the evening.

The cacophony caused by the voices of the countless students reunited in the Great Hall resonated in the princess' ears, but her brain couldn't make sense of anything her friends had been talking about. The girl could barely keep her magic under control at that point, but, luckily, she had decided to wear a second layer of gloves as an extra barrier between her skin and the outside world. It numbed her sense of touch to an extreme that she knew would cause a problem if she tried to hold the silverware, but that wouldn't be an issue as Elsa had no intention of eating during the feast.

While the princess didn't look up when Professor Dumbledore raised to his feet to announce the start of the feast, she averted her eyes to her left when she saw and felt Adam hand on hers. Although, unlike Tonks, he hadn't noticed that Elsa was more uncomfortable about people touching her there in particular, he wasn't surprised when she removed her hand in surprise. By then, all of her friends already knew that she didn't like being touched at all. "You should eat something," the ginger boy offered, his eyes filled with concern.

"I am not hungry," Elsa replied with a frown, diverging her gaze from his. Still, she searched for something that would be easy enough to be swallowed and, hopefully, digested. The last thing the princess wanted at that point was to have the eyes of her classmates on her. As usual, the dishes were much heavier than what she was used to eating, but the girl was able to spot some chocolate pudding on a corner after a while and helped herself with it.

From what she gathered about the holiday, Hallowe'en was an occasion when replacing supper with dessert was allowed. Elsa failed to understand the relationship between that tradition and witchcraft, but her theory was that it came from its muggle American counterpart that the princess had heard about right before a visit from the President of the United States and his family, a few years before.

"I should have expected that Els would pick the nearest chocolate dish!" Tonks joked, placing her hand in front of her mouth to avoid spitting the food in it while she giggled. Busy trying not to drop her spoon and familiar with her friend's lack of manners at that point, the princess just shrugged in response. Elsa had also grown used to the nickname both her two female friends had crafted for her, although she failed to understand the point about abbreviating a name as short as hers.

"You can't blame Elsa. Chocolate is like— _the_ traditional dessert," Adam replied the metamorph's comment, seeing that the princess wouldn't. Like Elsa, he didn't quite understand their friends' need to create nicknames for everyone and refused to use them unless it was requested by the person it referred to.

"Tradition is kind of lame, though," Tonks replied, making a face. Everyone who knew the metamorph was aware that her disregard was caused by her mother's terrible experience with them, but the knowledge didn't make Elsa feel any less cringy and scared when she heard her friend speaking that way.

As the Crown Princess of Arendelle, she was the embodiment of the continuation of the tradition in her country. Would her friendship with Tonks survive if the metamorph found out who she was and what it represented?

"Can't say I agree with you on this matter, mate," Adie giggled as she took Elsa's lead and filled her plate with some pudding, although it was more a statement for the former than personal preference at that moment. "Chocolate is the absolute _best_!"

Far from arguing with her friends, Tonks burst into laughter and wrapped her arms around Adie and Elsa, making the spoon slip from the princess' gloved hand. " _Tonks_! For Guds skyld!" She shouted in exasperation and annoyance, amplified by the stress she had gathered throughout the day. The outburst of feelings making the English language scarce from her mind.

Although she had spoken in Norwegian, Adie and Tonks seemed to understand that she had cursed since their laughter grew louder and more rampant. Elsa watched them dumbfounded, her face reddening in embarrassment at her outburst. At Arendelle, that behaviour would have been unacceptable and, while nobody had paid much attention to it at Hogwarts, the princess couldn't help but think she had disappointed her kingdom.

Tonks didn't allow her to dwell on that line of thought, however, as she used her other arm to bring the princess into a tighter hug. "It seems we're finally killing all that stiffness, right Els?" The metamorph chuckled before releasing the other girl altogether to high-five Adie, who was sitting on her other side.

"One more conquest for the best pranksters Hogwarts has _ever_ seen!" Adie replied with a full grim, causing Adam to roll his eyes and Elsa to hide her face on her hands in embarrassment.

"What did you say, by the way?" The red-haired boy wondered, his voice gentler than the girls'. "It can't be _this_ bad, can it? Something about God?"

Elsa looked up at him, encouraged by his soft voice. "I— something about Him, yes. I suppose it is _just_ a minor blasfemi—," the princess replied, gazing back at her lap, where her hands rested pressed against each other. "I prefer not to say it again, if it is fine."

She couldn't tell him that blasphemy was a major offence for the Arendellian royals since, despite their personal beliefs, they were supposed to look like the perfect Christian family to set an example to their people. The crown princess herself was sceptical and non-religious while her mother followed an unnamed shamanistic religion, but that didn't matter; as their kingdom's official religion was Christian, the monarchs and their children should as well _look_ it.

Both Adie and Tonks, who had stopped laughing to hear her answer, turned to look at her in astonished confusion. "Blas- _what_?" Adie reacted before Tonks or Adam could ask. Elsa had caught the interest of all of her friends since she rarely revealed something about herself or gave her personal opinion on subjects that weren't related to a class.

"Blasfemi— I do not know if it is spoken this way in English, but it means— when someone improperly uses or speaks of a hellig— _religious_ image," the princess' speech was slow, as it always was when talking about a topic she had never been instructed to discuss in English, trying to replace words she didn't know with the ones she knew or on her mother tongue.

"I have never taken you for a religious person, Els," Adie was, once again, the one to voice what all of them were thinking. Although they had never discussed religion, Elsa knew there were always signs that indicated when someone was devoted to a particular faith; ones the girl had never shown since she wasn't, in reality.

That was, once again, something that would be rather difficult to be explained without mentioning her royal status. Elsa supposed she could tell them that a proper religious stance was something her parents required from her despite her lack of belief, but the reply was more elaborated and would raise questions the princess was too nervous to answer at that moment.

So, she once again shrugged in response. "In a foreign land, one must respect the local traditions and I have learned that the majority of the British were Christians," it wasn't as much of a lie as it was an avoidance to answer. From her experience with them, Elsa knew they Tonks and Adie would be too opinionated to make further questions.

Indeed, it took no longer than ten seconds before Tonks broke the silence that had followed Elsa's comment. "Now that you are saying it— most of my muggle relatives are church-goers. My grandparents even convinced my mum and dad to take me once. I thought it was brilliant that they drink their god's _blood_ , but dad explained to me it was just wine, which killed the fun. It was boring with all that singing and all."

"Mum has always donated to the church near our house, though. They do some projects to help the poor, it's kind of nice." Adam was thoughtful for a moment before a wide smile started spreading through his face, "hey! I bet Jesus would have been a Hufflepuff! He was definitely a wizard if he could change water into wine and walk on the water."

"Don't be dumb. That's because he is a god. Or was he a demigod?" Adie looked at Adam and Elsa as she asked since Tonks had already said she as clueless as she was. The princess, however, was too scared of blaspheming to open her mouth again. This was a subject she had been taught not to ever discuss since it could cause some major diplomatic conflicts.

"He's God's son. Or perhaps he was a demigod since his mum was human," he slapped his own forehead as if trying to wake a memory of his past church experience. After a few seconds, he gave up, "anyway, I don't see why God can't be a wizard. I bet He was the most powerful wizard of all time."

The three friends turned to Elsa in a request for her to contribute to the conversation since they had come to a deadlock. Feeling trapped, the princess took such a long time thinking about what to answer that Adie got impatient, " _is_ Jesus a wizard, Els? If you are hesitating, I bet you know the answer!"

"I— do not have the answer. I am afraid my knowledge on theology is rather limited," still embarrassed by her previous outburst, Elsa refused to look at Adie as she replied. "However, the practice of burning witches had a Christian background and many priests would still find this questioning quite— improper for a good Christian."

"What do _you think_ , though?" Adie pressed, ignoring Tonks and Adam's warning glare. The duo had no trouble understanding the moments when pressuring Elsa into talking was reckless, although the metamorph was the most skilled of them. Adie, on the other hand, was too impatient to pick on the signs.

"I am not a priest or even educated enough to have a say, Adie." For once, all the noise in the room had ceased to exist as the princess' focus was turned to avoiding her friends' questions without betraying her royal background.

"Well, you are allowed to have an _opinion_ , aren't you?"

"Actually, that's not how it works, is it? Leo and I had to do all those courses at church to even be a part of some of their rites. And I know you have to study a lot more to be a full Christian," Adam came to Elsa's rescue since Adie was refusing to acknowledge Tonks' attempts to call her attention. "It's like asking one of us to have an opinion about Advanced Transfiguration."

"You were still saying that Jesus could have been a wizard," Adie countered, stubbornly.

"Yes, but Elsa is entitled to not saying something random when she can't even begin understanding the matter."

After sending a grateful gaze toward Adam, Elsa tuned off the conversation. She knew that Adam wouldn't let go of the bickering until Tonks took his place or Adie gave it up. It hadn't been the first time she had been cornered by Adie and it wouldn't be the last.

From her previous experience, however, she knew as a fact that Adie would apologize to her later. The princess understood that she wasn't being mean to her, the other blonde was just too impulsive to read between the subtle lines Elsa drew. Although much alike, Tonks and she were quite distinct in that sense, which was a good thing since the metamorph was able to reach Adie and pull her away from the conversation with gentleness.

After a while, Elsa lost track of the time as exhaustion consumed her. Between the spur of magic during class and the feast, it had been a long day. It was a technic she had practised for many years that kept her in perfect composure in spite of how she was feeling kept her from breaking right there and then; from time to time, she took her glass with pumpkin juice to her lips and sip it, using the taste to keep her thoughts clear.

Eventually, Elsa felt a touch on her arm and, looking up, found Tonks worried eyes. The princess found the way she had started relying on her friends so fast interesting. Although there was much they didn't know about her, they started feeling like an important part of her family: her brother and sisters in the heart.

They shielded her from the rest of the school by protecting her from bullies and pranksters, translating both words and customs to her, and helping her with the subjects and exercises from the classes that she found difficult. Tonks, the oldest of them and by far the most empathetic, was also their conciliator, keeping the group together and in accordance.

"You okay?" The metamorph asked, removing her hands as soon as Elsa turned toward her. "I'm sure it won't take much longer until the feast is over."

"I am tired," the confession surprised both Elsa and Tonks since the princess wasn't one of admitting such things. Still, it didn't feel much different from saying it to her parents, her nanny, or Anna, "it's been a long day."

Tonks nodded in response before picking a box of a chocolate frog on the table and handing it to Elsa, who looked at her, puzzled. "It's been a while since you last sent a card for your sister. Between you and I, I bet we can get something interesting for her."

The princess took the frog into her hands with a shy smile. On her first month at Hogwarts, Anna had sent her quite a few letters asking about magic and the castle; eager to be in touch with the sister she loved more than the world itself, Elsa complied with long replies of descriptions as well as small gifts. That was the first time they had talked in three years.

When the younger princess expressed her desire to collect chocolate frog cards, the older began sending her weekly boxes and the cards she had gotten from her own frogs. Soon, Tonks and the others joined in by giving her the ones they already had and Anna's collection started growing fast. Although she never told her friends about it, they seemed to understand how important it was to keep the correspondence between her sister and her frequent.

On the previous weeks, however, Elsa had been too busy and worried to send her sister the usual package. Suddenly distracted by the guilty for having forgotten her sister, the princess opened the box and removed the card to find a face she had never seen. "Alberic Grunnion," she looked with curiosity at the bald wizard on the card before turning it to read the description, "this nineteenth-century wizard invented the Dungbomb—?"

"That's a funny one! I'm sure Anna will love it," Tonks giggled and opened her own box, "oh! I got Donaghan Tremlett! He's the Weird Sister's bass player."

Tonks kept Elsa busy selecting cards to send to Anna while eating the chocolate, being joined by Adie and Adam at some point. By the end of the feast, the princess was surprised to realize she had forgotten where she was and, albeit still tired, had had some fun. The combination of her friends' efforts and her desire to make Anna happy had been exactly what she had needed to endure what would have been, otherwise, a terrible experience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello,
> 
> How are you all faring these days? Thank you all who read, followed and/or sent kudos to the story!
> 
> So... once again, it took me forever! I am so sorry and will definitely try doing better in the future.
> 
> I know I mentioned Anna and Elsa's correspondence briefly here. Why haven't I mentioned in the previous chapter? Because I forgot (oops!).
> 
> The letters are very important to the story, so I will keep mentioning them and will use the occasions when I do it to fill the void left by my forgetfulness. I apologized deeply, but it feels wrong to edit something loads of people have already read, forcing them to go back and read it again.
> 
> Since this is a plot I particularly like and, unfortunately, can't go much far into since the fic has so many other plots, I decided to publish a separate fic with a collection of letters Elsa and Amma exchanged while Elsa was at Hogwarts. You won't have to read the new fic to understand this one, it's just an additional content. Wait for it.
> 
> For the words in Norwegian. Lys opp is the imperative form of "lyse opp", meaning "light up". Blasfemi means "blasphemy". Hellig means "sacred".
> 
> Also, I tried changing the English writing from American to British since they are in the UK on this fic, but well... might have gotten it all mixed. Sorry x_x
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Brace yourselves, the plot thickens on the next one!
> 
> See you soon.


	7. Shot in the Dark

On the night following the feast of Hallowe'en, Elsa was so exhausted that she had fallen asleep at the moment her body hit her bed's mattress. It was a good thing. That way, she hadn't had time to mull over what had happened on Charms or the fact that the Hufflepuff first-years would have another class with Professor Flitwick on the next day, which would have caused a sleepless night. 

On the contrary. The princess had a dreamless full-night sleep and woke up feeling reinvigorated for the first time in an entire week. Sleeping wearing her hair on a tight bun had also proved to make her morning routine easier since it stopped it from entangling too much throughout the night. The experience made Elsa consider, for a moment, doing it every night even though it wasn't healthy for her hair. No, taking care of herself — especially of what concerned her physical appearance — was one of the obligations of a princess.

On every other day, the princess would have left the Common Room with the supplies for her morning classes and her books, but Hufflepuff first-years had no classes on Thursday mornings since they usually had Astronomy on Wednesday nights. Famished after a dinner composed only of chocolate frogs, Elsa headed to the kitchens as soon as she had finished showering and dressing for the day, without waiting for her much slower friends. 

Her belly was full and her body well-rested when the princess' mind finally started working on the pressing matter of what had happened on the previous day during Charms' class. Cursing herself for not having thought about taking her writing supplies, the girl waited for a time when her friends would most likely be in the Great Hall having breakfast to return to the Common Room in order to gather them, giving herself enough space to start worrying. In truth, she didn't want to make excuses for her visit to Flitwick first thing in the morning.

No matter the angle she looked at it, however, Elsa couldn't understand the reason why her magic had behaved the way it had. Unless she had misunderstood the concept of “intent”, it had had nothing to do with what had occurred then. Not only it hadn't worked when she focused on its right purpose; it _had_ worked once the girl was putting an effort on _not_ releasing her magic. If anything, the way she had cast the spell served as a proof against Miranda Goshawk's thesis.

Realizing, from the way the light was entering the kitchen through the window, that it was time for her to go, Elsa thanked the elves for the excellent meal and headed towards her dorm in order to pick her writing supplies, her textbook for Flitwick's class, and the book about “intent”. Then, the girl followed to the Charms' classroom in an attempt to find the teacher before the students arrived for his first period.

Much to Elsa's relief, the tiny professor was sitting behind his desk, reading a book. He raised his head as soon as she crossed the door sill, “I was wondering if you would come to see me before class, Miss Kyrre.” Although somewhat embarrassed by the predictability of her acts, the princess couldn't help but relax under the man's bright and calm smile. 

“Good morning, professor,” she answered, offering him a shy smile in return for his own.

“Likewise!” He offered with enthusiasm before nodding his head towards the books on the princess' hands, “I see you brought Miranda Goshawk's books with you. Why don't you sit down so we can discuss it?”

The smile died on Elsa's lips as she nodded back and took a seat by the desk right in front of Professor Flitwick's. She proceeded by sending an inquiring look toward the man, trying to figure out a way to voice the questions in her mind. Finally, the princess realized she wouldn't be able to summarize everything in one single question, “I— can not understand what happened in class yesterday.”

“I figured as much,” the professor acknowledged with kindness. “First things first, perhaps you might be interested in knowing that the official name used to address what you did yesterday is ‘non-verbal magic’. This style of spell-casting is formally covered from the sixth year, although more advanced students sometimes try it on their own before taking their O.W.L.s.” 

Thinking about it for a few seconds, Elsa realized that, although it didn't guarantee the Charms' teacher would be able to help her, she was relieved that he knew of magic being performed wordlessly. “Do people often cast spells like that by accident?”

“Indeed they do,” Flitwick declared right away. “I dare to say, a child's first accidental spells are always non-verbal.”

“I— yes— of course,” surprise washed the princess as she realized how stupid she had been for having forgotten such basic information. The accidental magic on all the stories she had heard from her classmates was non-verbal. “So, do you think it was an accidental spell?”

“Well, that's for you to say, I'm afraid. Did it feel accidental to you?” The professor replied with an encouraging nod. 

“I— I do not know. Mrs Goshawk's book— what she said about ‘intent’—” the girl shook her head, rethinking her words in an attempt to formulate a clearer answer to Flitwick's question. “During my first attempts, I tried to— to think on how much I wanted to make the spell work, but it helped not— sorry, I mean, it _did not_ help. When you asked me— when the spell actually worked— I had— already— given up that approach.” 

“And what have you tried then?” The man asked, curiosity clear in his voice. The princess could see in his eyes that he was coming up with some theories already.

Elsa struggled to respond to his question, however. Although the professor didn't even acknowledge the issues in her speech, the girl was ashamed about the sudden trouble she had had to formulate her previous answer. In the previous weeks, her English had improved greatly, but more pressing conversations still had the power to make the language slip through her mind. 

“Miss Kyrre, there is no reason to be ashamed of. This is a conversation with your professor on a subject you are not expected to have mastered yet, not a diplomatic discussion with a politician or a reporter. It is fine to stumble on your words a little,” the teacher reprimanded her with kindness. “Now, if you may answer my question—?”

Despite the embarrassment caused by his reproach, Elsa took his encouragement to the heart and was much calmer when she replied with a nod, “well, as I recall, I just wished it to work so I would not have to repeat the exercise.” The girl's cheeks reddened further at the confession of her lazy, sloppy performance.

There was no sign of reproach on his voice when the man responded to Elsa, however, “the purpose of finishing an unpleasant activity as fast as possible.” Encouraged by Professor Flitwick's serenity, the princess locked up, noticing that he was smiling in amusement. “I dare to say that few intentions are as strong as this one.”

Elsa's eyes widened at the revelation that she didn't _have_ to concentrate on the effect of the spell. If the intention of making the spell work was enough, it would make things much easier. “Is it— enough? To— to make it work?” The princess felt the need to ask since Professor Flitwick's answer had felt like something that was too good to be true. 

“Sometimes, with more basic spells, yes,” although he still seemed to be somewhat amused, the teacher was taking his time considering what she was telling him. Albeit anxious, Elsa appreciated his interest on the matter. “As I am sure you know, magic is often unpredictable. Yours seems to be more—” the professor paused, his smile slowly dying as he entered in a state of deep thought, weighing his next words, “instinctive than the others'.”

“Why is that, though?” Elsa asked before she could refrain herself. Suddenly, the girl realized they were discussing a topic she had been determined not to approach with her teachers. 

Flitwick didn't take notice of the girl's struggles, however. Instead, still in deep thought, he started pacing back and forth, “I cannot say for sure. Professor Dumbledore believes that your magic's explosive nature is caused by your attempts to suppress it. While not a common occurrence, such magical outbursts are not unheard of.” 

If not trained to read slight changes in the expressions of experienced politicians, the princess knew she would have missed the worry and fear hidden behind Professor Flitwick's calm composure. The girl tried her best to soothe the wave of anxiety caused by his emotions by telling herself that Professor Dumbledore wouldn't have let her study at Hogwarts if she was dangerous to the other students. The attempt, however, failed.

“Miss Kyrre— Elsa, look at me.” The princess was surprised when she noticed she had averted her fuzzy gaze from the professor. Realizing the way her eyes were flooding with tears of pure dread, however, Elsa didn't do as the man had requested her, keeping her head down. “What is it that is troubling you?”

The girl swallowed her tears before opening her mouth to answer, but she wasn't surprised when her voice came out low and rough, “am I— am I dangerous?”

Professor Flitwick took a few seconds to answer her, but she felt no desire to look up and try reading his expression. What if she saw even more concern in his eyes? Would she be able to stand it? “Regardless of the reason your magic is so unpredictable, you represent no danger to your classmates, Elsa.”

The princess didn't need to look up to realize the man was hiding something from her. His answer had been straight-forward enough, but also too specific for a simple yes-or-no question. Her tutors at home would have advised her to drop the subject since she wasn't well-versed at leading people into revealing something they weren't willing to. Elsa had to know. 

“Do I represent a danger to— someone else?” The girl was still trembling and incapable of raising her head to look straight into the professor's eyes. What _would_ she do if he said she was actually dangerous? What _could_ she do?

“There are certain concerning cases in which suppressing magic can lead to— unpleasant consequences to one own. I dare not to say more than that, though, Elsa,” he added quickly as the princess was opening her mouth to ask more questions, “we are monitoring your magic and there is no reason to be concerned for now.”

 _There is no reason to be concerned._ Elsa had heard those words several times before from her parents, her nanny, some of her father's most trustworthy advisors. Nothing to worry about— the words had been traitorous in each of the moments they had used them to reassure her about her magic. Should she be concerned about her own safety, then?

“Professor Dumbledore's theory— about me— suppressing my magic— it worries you, though. Doesn't it— Sir?” At the realization that the first part of her speech had come out as rather obstinate, the princess chose to add the last word to show that she held respect for her teacher. 

Once again, Professor Flitwick surprised her by not reacting to neither her anger nor her attempt to remedy it. Instead, the man focused on her question, “no, Elsa. We are all alert to all the possibilities since we are to keep an eye on the way your magic is adapting to spell-practising and the overall life at Hogwarts. What worries me the most, if you must know, is the unconformity between your magic prowess, the knowledge you show in your theoretical works and what you show us in your practical lessons.”

The princess raised her head to look at Professor Flitwick. She had expected him to either deny being troubled altogether or admit he was worried about her powers. The confession about his concerns about her academic situation caught her off-guard. Even more so when the man kept on, “all the teachers agree you are one of the most brilliant students in this school— yet, you are failing Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. You've gone through pieces of theory that first years usually ignore, done— if the reports from Professor Dumbledore are correct— done magic beyond your years, and— still, only once you have cast a spell correctly in class.”

Elsa was surprised when, as he paused to look at her again and their eyes met, she realized that they were showing no sign of anger, only curiosity and concern. Although Flitwick was the Head of Ravenclaw, the princess had trouble understanding his level of disregard for manners and respect when he was pursuing knowledge. While the other teachers would have called her off for her previous reply, the man dismissed it.

After a moment of silence, Elsa realized that Professor Flitwick was waiting for her to say something. It took the princess a few more seconds, however, to understand what it was. “I can not see why the spells do not work, Professor. I had considered the possibility of my magic being simply— different from everybody else's. But— yesterday— I cast the wand-lighting spell. So, it must be at least somewhat alike—?”

As she vocalized her doubts, Elsa noticed that they were back to the subject of her spell-casting. Having practised her eloquence and conversational cunning from the moment she had started talking, the princess knew it wasn't quite easy to trick her into a topic. Yet, Professor Flitwick had done it effortlessly, showing a level of focus and oratory she hadn't thought she would see in a teacher.

“It is definitely something else.” The man paused and, rubbing his chin, looked up to the ceiling as if asking for answers from a divine force. A few seconds later, he turned toward her with a smile, “do you mind showing me your wand? I confess I have rarely seen one such as yours— and never before at Hogwarts.”

A flush spread through the princess' face. “I— do not have it with me. I am sorry,” she added quickly. Elsa's complete disregard for the object had shocked her classmates since most of the witches and wizards considered their wands their most precious possession. 

Flitwick wasn't surprised by her confession, however. “That is fine. Why don't you arrive about half an hour before class this afternoon so I can take a look, huh? It might provide us with clues for the reason behind your magic's instability,” he requested with amusement clear in his voice and eyes. 

Elsa only nodded in response, trying to control her own embarrassment as she heard steps indicating that the students coming for his first class had arrived. Giggling, the professor kept going, “if you have nowhere else to be, would you like to stay for my next class? Coincidently, I will be teaching the freezing spell to my third year Gryffindor students, which I am sure interests you greatly.”

Elsa was indeed curious about the subject. It wasn't the first time she would see another person casting a freezing spell since Professor Dumbledore had demonstrated it to the girl and her parents back at the Arendelle castle, but she hadn't seen the spell being taught before. It could end up being elucidating, indeed. 

As the princess nodded in response, Flitwick waved his wand to materialize a desk on a corner at the back of the classroom so she could be out of the way but still watch it. “Do sit, then,” the professor pointed the head at the place he had just conjured. 

It took no time before the classroom was filled, most of the students preferring arriving at the last minute before the beginning of the lecture. Elsa kept her head down, although she could feel the eyes of the Gryffindor third-years on her. Their curiosity was satisfied as soon as the class started, when the professor introduced the princess as a first-year Hufflepuff and explained her interest in the magic of the elements and her desire to see it being cast.

Albeit it wasn't as elucidating as she had first expected it to be, the lecture was rather pleasant as the students were encouraged by Elsa's presence to show maturity and magic skill. Neither of them was able to cast the spell right away, but the first one to manage it was a red-haired boy called William Weasley, whose younger brother Charles was a Gryffindor first-year who shared some classes with the princess. 

After his first success, the boy headed to the back of the classroom and offered to demonstrate the spell to Elsa. He even lent her his textbook, a quill, and piece of parchment so she could take notes based on her observations. It was the first time since the princess had arrived at Hogwarts that an older boy had taken notice of her, the _very_ first time an older _teenager_ had been nice to her without ulterior motives. The realization made Elsa feel even more self-conscious than usual.

Yet, Bill—that was how the boy had asked her to call him—was polite and patient to her. He managed to perform the magic several times in a roll, which he humbly admitted to being a consequence of his homework practice. By the end of the class, the boy was rewarded with ten points for his attention towards a younger student and ten more for his spell-casting. 

Elsa, on the other hand, had gotten a new friend and mentor throughout the lecture. Professor Flitwick offered the princess an encouraging smile when Bill pulled her to the front of the classroom in order to introduce her to his friends Tyler Springs and John MacGowan. The three teenagers exited the classroom flooding the girl with questions about her interests and pointing out what they knew about each subject.

Once they realized Elsa liked working with numbers, however, their conversation was directed to an elective class they had started that year, Arithmancy. According to the boys, the discipline referred to the study of the magic of the numbers, which made a lot of sense to the princess considering the latest mathematical discoveries on Astronomy.

What followed was some further explanation on Arithmancy as well as a promise to let the princess into their study group. Although overwhelmed, there was a big part of her that was glad about the encounter and eager to start learning everything about what was promising to be the best subject offered by Hogwarts.

Once they reached the dungeons, where the Gryffindor third-years would have their Potions lesson with Slytherin, Bill promised to send their meeting time and place through his brother once they had it all settled.

Feeling warmth inside herself, Elsa followed to the library to get started with her readings on Arithmancy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, y'all.
> 
> As you probably noticed, this chapter is less than half the size of the two previous. I decided to write a shorter chapter in order to update it sooner.
> 
> Cookies for the people who figure out what Dumbledore is concerned about! xD
> 
> Thank you all who sent kudos, favourited, and followed the story. 
> 
> Stay safe and healthy. See you soon!


	8. The Labyrinth of Mirrors

The curiosity regarding the discovery of a Hogwarts subject that she could come to like kept Elsa occupied in the library for the rest of the morning. The girl would have missed lunch altogether and her afternoon classes if her friends hadn't found her and dragged her from there to the kitchens to a quick meal.

On their way to the kitchens, Adie and Tonks took turns telling her about all the places where they had searched for before Adam came up with the brilliant idea that she might have been in the library. Elsa would have felt if the two girls hadn't been clearly excited about the excuse to explore the castle, in the first place. 

Following the tale, the Metamorphmagus inquired about her readings. Tonks was the only one who was somewhat interested in knowing what Elsa had been studying on her own since she deemed a few of them useful to improve her spell-casting skills. At most of the times, however, the girl had grown bored and made up an excuse to leave before the princess had had time to explain the entire subject.

Elsa would have preferred keeping her attendance to such an advanced Charms lecture as a secret, but there was no point on it since her friends would find out about it when Bill Weasley and his friends reached out for their first meeting. Therefore, Elsa had no alternative but telling them Flitwick had invited her to watch one of his classes and a few older students had offered her a place on their Arithmancy studying group. 

The trio shook their heads in disbelief, used to Elsa's studying habits but not quite able to understand them. Arithmancy, Tonks was quick to clarify, was one of the most difficult brands of magic taught at Hogwarts. Not many students chose to study the subject during their third year and even fewer kept studying it after their O.W.L.s. 

“What is it about, anyway?” Adam asked, exasperated as he looked from Tonks to Elsa and back to the Metamorphmagus. 

The two girls exchanged a gaze as if encouraging the other to speak up. After a few seconds, Elsa decided to answer at the notion that Tonks wouldn't have asked her to do it if she didn't have a good reason. The Metamorphmagus knew well enough that her friend would much rather stay in silence.

“It is the study of the magic in numbers. It touches the subject of divination using numbers and— I think it is called— numerology?” Elsa explained, happy that she had overcome the shyness about her usage of language around her friends.

When Adam and Adie groaned, at the same time, at what they deemed to be Elsa's unnatural interest in numbers, the princess felt only amusement. “It is also the theory behind spell-creation. Minnie and my mum say it can be useful for an Auror and I should consider studying it,” Tonks explained, much to Elsa's surprise. 

Although the Metamorphmagus didn't sound excited at the perspective of being in such a difficult class, Elsa was happy that she would have at least one friend taking it with her. “How so?” Adie asked, seeming more excited about the subject after realizing that they would learn how spells were creating if they took the course.

“I mean, Aurors have to deal with unauthorized spells all the time. I suppose it might help with recognizing what kind of curse hit you so you can cast a counterspell or something.” Although Tonks was nonchalant about the dangers of her future job, Elsa couldn't help but shiver at the thought of her friend getting hurt. Or worse.

When the four friends arrived at the kitchens soon after, the princess' fears were washed away from her mind as the house-elves circled them to know of their requests. Once they sat with their favourite dishes right in front of them, Elsa was too preoccupied enjoying the chicken salad she figured she would never have found in the Great Hall.

“I don't get how you can survive when you only eat salads and soups,” Adam declared, his mouth half-full with some of his ham sandwich. Elsa smiled in amusement, but made no effort to reply to him since that was an old debate the trio took turns bringing up over and over again. 

“Manners,” warned Tonks as she elbowed the boy, although her own mouth was full. The reaction caused Adie to laugh out loud and Elsa to shake her head in astonishment. Meals at Hogwarts couldn't be more different from the ones she had at home. Even when she ate in Anna's presence, the discrepancy was extreme since having manners at the table was one of the basics of their education.

Ignoring Tonks and Adie's teasing and Elsa's overall disapproval, Adam turned to the princess. “Tell us a story about your country, Elsie,” the boy requested with pleading green eyes the girl would always associate with Anna, referring to her with the nickname he only used when he was asking something or trying to comfort her.

Elsa sighed and rolled her eyes, although the smile on her lips betrayed her amusement. In truth, she rather liked the reminder that her friends were interested and that she was comfortable enough to answer their questions, knowing they would withdraw them if she was distressed by them. It had become one of the trio's favourite excuses to change the subject. “What would you like to know about it?”

Adam was clearly caught off-guard by her question as he didn't reply right away. After a few seconds, however, Tonks made the request in his place: “tell us one of your myths.”

Myths and customs were the main subjects of their discussions regarding Arendelle since Elsa admitted she knew much about neither the wizarding nor the muggle communities in her country – after all, she knew much from reports and data, but had rarely met her subjects in person. Since she couldn't admit she was a princess, she had told them half-a-truth: her parents had sheltered her.

“Very well.” The one problem of the request was that it was such a common topic in their conversation that the princess was forced to dig deep into her mind before finding one she hadn't told them before, “have I told you about Ahtohallan?”

Elsa wouldn't even have needed to see the others shaking their heads to know that she hadn't told that story before, the way their attention was promptly caught was enough of an answer. 

“It is said that there is a river in the middle of the Dark Sea— that is located at the North of Arendelle, by the way— where one can access all of their memories, all that makes them who they are, so they can learn about their true path in life,” the princess made a pause, trying to translate her mother's stories into the English language. 

It wasn't that the words per se were unknown to Elsa, but it was difficult to translate it in a way that would maintain the atmosphere her mother had been so good at creating when she had told her that story. The others were too absorbed in the story to rush her, though, which meant she was doing something right. 

“If you dive too deep into the river, though, access memories too long before your time, the river drowns you,” Elsa tried to sound mysterious, even knowing she wasn't nearly as good as her mother at that. “According to an old song, the river shows you what you fear the most, the exact thing you  _ will  _ have trouble watching. It's a test of bravery.”

The princess looked at each of her friends to realize their reaction couldn't be more different. Adam's face showed hesitance, the beginning of fear. Adie, on the other hand, was so excited that she couldn't remain still on her chair, bouncing her legs back and forth. Finally, Tonks seemed to be curious and determined. 

“Ahtohallan— it definitely sounds like some magical place or something,” Adie chuckled and, startling some of the elves walking nearby, jumped off her chair to start pacing in excitement. “How can a river be on the sea, anyway? Is it on an island?”

Elsa covered her mouth as she giggled at Adie's behaviour. Then, she turned serious at the remembrance of her mother's words of warning when Anna had made the same question, a few years before. “Nobody knows. My mother says there is no record of anyone being  _ able  _ to reach Ahtohallan— all those who try never come back.” 

“If nobody has ever come back from there, how do they know of Ahtohallan in the first place? Someone must have gone there, right?” Adam asked, his gaze still lost in astonishment.

Adie shook her head in impatience, “but it's just a story, isn't it? It's a made-up place.” The girl stopped pacing to send a questioning look at Elsa. 

“I— I suppose— it might be—?” In truth, since her magic was a heavy contradiction of the reality she was used to, Elsa had always felt she  _ should  _ give stories the benefit of the doubt. Her mother certainly seemed to believe Ahtohallan was there.

“Do you believe it, Elsie?” There was a level of hopefulness in Adam's voice that Elsa wasn't quite comfortable about crashing.

“As Mamma would say, only Ahtohallan knows,” she smiled playfully at her friend, who giggled in return. 

“It's decided, then: we should look for it! See it with our own eyes,” Adie sat down and, with enthusiasm, resumed eating. 

A few weeks before, Elsa would have been worried. But, by that time, she had gotten used to her friends' crazy ideas of getting into an adventure. When Adam received a letter from his brother to suggest they enrol into scuba diving lessons on the next summer vacations, Tonks suggested they should all enrol so they could dive into the castle's lake throughout their second year.

In the following weeks, they had also promised each other they would explore every inch of the Forbidden Forest and, one day, sneak into Gringotts to look for dragons — according to Adam's logic, they couldn't be arrested for it since they wouldn't steal anything. Elsa had grown tired of arguing against something that would probably never happen and just stood back to watch as their ideas grew crazier.

“You know what that means, though, right?” Tonks spoke with a smirk on her lips and sent an amused gaze towards Elsa. “You will have to teach us your language, otherwise we will be in a lot of trouble if we have to part ways.”

Elsa sighed playfully. Her friends had asked her to teach them her language before – indeed, they had started showing interest in their very first week at school –, but the princess didn't feel she would be a capable teacher. 

“We do not know if they speak Norwegian in Ahtohallan, Tonks. If there are people living there, they could very much speak another Scandinavian language such as Finnish or Icelandic, or even something nobody has ever heard of,” Elsa argued.

Tonks sighed in defeat, recognizing that her attempt to persuade the princess had failed, but sent a determined glance that told her she wouldn't be giving up. In truth, Elsa wasn't sure why her friends wanted to learn her language so much since their communication worked perfectly in English. 

Overall, Norwegian was spoken in very few places around the world and was only an official language in Norway, Arendelle, and at the Nordic Council. Learning it was somewhat pointless if one had no plans of living in one of the two countries or being a part of the Council. Elsa had tried to explain that to her friends, but neither had been convinced by the argument.

“You said there was a song talking about Ahtohallan,” Adam decided to resume the previous topic of the conversation, since it was much more interesting than their old debate on learning Elsa's native language. “Can you sing it? Perhaps it can help us understand what we will face when we get there.”

“I do not know the English version— or if it exists, even,” the princess answered, relieved to have the excuse not to sing in front of her friends. Although her voice wasn't bad and she enjoyed it enough for her parents to hire a teacher, Elsa was too shy to do it in front of her friends  _ and  _ the house-elves. 

“Sing it in your language, then,” the boy shrugged. “Personally, I've never heard you speaking full sentences in it and we might learn it by only listening to you speaking it.”

“You know— that is true! If you started speaking Norwegian randomly, we could get so desperate to understand you that our brain would— I don't know— absorb it?” Tonks smirked at the reasoning, while Adie and Adam sent a pleading gaze towards the princess.

“That does not even make  _ sense _ !” Elsa said, feeling her cheeks growing red. 

“Come on, Elsie— please?” The princess rolled her eyes, annoyed by the use of the nickname, which made both Adie and Tonks start giggling. 

Elsa fished a piece of lettuce with her fork and took it to her mouth, taking her time chewing it. Although quite bashful about her singing voice, the insistence wasn't upsetting since she was confident that her audience wouldn't judge her. 

Yet, as she swallowed the lettuce and cleaned her throat a few times in preparation for the singing, the princess felt her heart starting to race and her cheeks reddening even further.

_ “Der hvor kuling møter kav  
_ _ Danser minner mot et mektig hav  
_ _ Sov, du lille, i min favn  
_ _ For i den elven finnes alt _ __

_ Der i dypet langt av lei  
_ _ Ligger svaret og en vei for deg  
_ _ Lytt til Ahtohallans brus  
_ _ Men ikke sovn i elvens sus _ __

_ Den synger høyt om du går nær  
_ _ Det er i sang magien er  
_ _ Ditt mot vil vises når du ser  
_ _ Elven vet hvorfor du er der _ __

_ Der hvor kuling møter kav  
_ __ Danser minner mot et mektig hav  
_ Let, min kjære, finn dem frem  
_ __ Alt som er skjult, det er i den”

Focused on keeping her voice steady and firm—albeit rather low in her shyness—, Elsa only realized she had closed her eyes when she opened them, right after singing the last verse of the song. She could recall it perfectly as it was one of the lullabies her mother used to sing to Anna and her. 

The princess heard the kitchen being filled by enthusiastic claps and turned to see that the elves had stopped working to watch her. As she had learned from her music teacher, she raised from her chair and bent her head in the subtle bow that showed her respect and appreciation without betraying her position as the heir to the throne.

What felt like centuries after, the claps died and Elsa once again sat on her chair and turned to her friends, her cheeks in a deep red shade. “Whoa! How didn't I know you could sing?” Adie asked, her eyes widened.

“I— huh— used to take lessons at home,” the princess replied in a low voice, deepening her face on her hands in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

A moment of silence followed the princess' answer, disturbed only by the sounds of work being done around them. Finally, it was broken by Calder, the leader of the elves and their spokesperson, who approached their table and placed a cup of hot chocolate in front of her, “in appreciation for your song, Mistress Elsa.” 

The girl couldn't help but smile at the little creature, “thank you, Calder. I am glad it was of your liking.” The elf grinned back, his long pointy ears rising in a sign of happiness, before returning to his duties and Elsa turned to watch her friends, who were still looking at her in awe. 

“I wonder how much you've been keeping from us, Els,” said Tonks, sending the princess a playful smile. 

The statement made Elsa's smile die immediately and, in order to hide her shame, her eyes avert to the cup in front of her. She knew her friend was only messing with her, but the truth was that she had been hiding too much from them.

“That much, huh,” Tonks' voice was still playful. “It's fine, though. You can have your little secrets for now.”

“It's fun to figure them out little by little, anyway,” Adie added in equal amusement. 

The light tone used by the two girls caused Elsa to raise her head again. Relieved to see the easy smile on her three friends' lips, the princess took the cup in her hands and solved the hot drink with care not to burn her lips.

“It sounded like a lullaby, don't you think?” Adam asked, looking at Tonks and Adie.

“It is a lullaby that my mamma used to sing to me when I was little,” the princess replied, even though the question hadn't been directed to her.

“Leet teel Ahtohallan's— bross?— what does  _ that  _ mean?” Tonks inquired, causing the princess' eyes to widen. Not for the first time, Elsa was surprised by the Metamorph's memory.

“Lytt til Ahtohallans brus,” Elsa slowly repeated with the correct form of pronunciation, her eyebrows still raised in awe. “I do not know how to translate  _ brus _ . It is the sound made when water— becomes gas?”

The others frowned in deep thought, trying to come up with a word for that. “Bloody hell, that is specific—” Adie finally replied, impatient. “What does the rest mean?”

Elsa sighed and smiled before replying, “listen to the— brus of Ahtohallan. The song  _ says  _ the river is magical, though. Det er i sang magien er— it is in song the magic are—  _ is _ ! It is in  _ the  _ song  _ where  _ the magic is, I suppose—?”

“Translating  _ is  _ difficult, isn't it?” Adam wondered, his eyes still widened in astonishment, and Elsa nodded in response. “How do you manage to do it  _ every time  _ you speak?” 

The princess shrugged. “What I do is not a translation. I just—” annoyed when she realized she didn't know how to explain it, Elsa sighed and shook her head. “It is not a translation. I do not think in Norwegian first.”

“It's still impressive!” Adam's compliment caused Elsa to once again flush.

“I think we should try and translate the song, though,” Adie declared. “It will help us when we go explore Ahtohallan.”

“You mean  _ Elsa  _ should translate it, right? She's the only one who knows the language since she  _ refuses  _ to teach us.” Tonks' replies caused Elsa to roll her eyes.

“I told you I am  _ not  _ a teacher, Tonks,” Elsa said, feigning annoyance and tiredness. “I would not know where to start it.”

“Well, you could start showing us what the words in the song mean,” Adam suggested.

“YES! That's a good idea,” declared Adie with a level of enthusiasm that made the other three giggle.

Elsa let go of her amusement to think about Adam's suggestion for a moment. Although she wasn't sure if learning a language that way would be possible, it was indeed an idea. “Fine,” she finally answered with a nod.

The four children spent the remaining of their lunch talking about the song. After they finished eating, Elsa wrote the lyrics down and made the other three copy it. When it was finally done, it was already time for their next class. 

Elsa's sense of calm faded right away as Elsa stepped into her Defense Against Dark Arts classroom to find all the desks pulled to the corners, an indication that they would be continuing practising the Knockback Jinx. The girl realized she should have expected it since most of the students were still having trouble with aiming, a skill Professor Scamander had explained to be common among first-years and they would require a few more classes to master.

As four friends headed to a corner to drop their backpacks and get their wands ready, Elsa felt the others' eyes on her. It was no secret that the princess was terrified of duelling, even though none of them was aware of the real reason behind her fears. They only assumed she was afraid of being hurt by mistakes made by herself or her partner. The girl was, after all, the worst of the class in spell-casting. 

Once everyone arrived, Professor Scamander followed to the middle of the classroom and told them they should keep practising the Knockback Jinx with the same partner from the previous class. To Adie and Adam's amusement, Tonks sighed in defeat and walked away to meet Charlie Weasley. Elsa, on the other hand, went to stand on a corner to stay out of the way while she waited for the teacher, who was circling the class to instruct the students of their first mistakes so they had the opportunity of correcting them throughout the next hour.

It was only about fifteen minutes later that Professor Scamander approached her. “Very well, Miss Kyrre. Show me what you've practised since the last class,” he requested with an encouraging smile that was very unique to adults, filled with warmth and innocence. Without much enthusiasm, Elsa did as the teacher had said, taking the wand from the pocket inside her coat.

As always, the wand's holder was covered by ice in a matter of seconds, but the princess chose to ignore the panic the sight was causing in order to get the exercise done as fast as possible. With a trembling hand, Elsa experimented the movement of her wrist and forearm as if drawing a spiral outside in. 

Then, realizing that Professor Scamander was nodding in an indication that she had performed it correctly, the girl repeated the movement. Recalling the conversation with Professor Flitwick a few hours before, Elsa focused on how much she wanted to get this done,  _ do work! _ She frowned in concentration and, one second later, declared: “ _ flipendo _ !” 

To the princess' annoyance, nothing happened. She sighed and allowed her left arm to fall beside her body, the wand in her hand. “You are doing a good job,” the teacher offered once more his warm smile in encouragement. “Professor Flitwick told me you've been studying magical theory. Well— jinxing someone requires the desire to hit the person with a spell.”

Elsa frowned. She had heard this from Professor Scamander himself during a lecture about the differences between spells, charms, jinxes, and curses. The girl wondered, was the teacher mentioning this again because he thought she didn't remember it or was it because he wished her to know he had been talking to Flitwick about her? If the latter, why would he want that?

“Let's try again,” Scamander smiled and took what Adie had told her to be one of the most basic duelling stances: with the right side of his body – the dominant – slightly in front of his left side, his wand raised and the arm slightly bent. Since it was quite a simple position, most of the students adopted it when they were casting spells on one another

Although she didn't feel comfortable in a duelling position, Elsa copied his posture the best she could, keeping her left side in front since it was her dominant. Gulping, the princess watched him once again nodding at her in approval. “Professor, I do not have any use for combative spells. May I just— write an essay,” she tried, even knowing there was no chance he would allow her to skip the practical exercise.

Unlike Professor McGonagall, who had sent her a severe gaze when she made the same request, the Defense teacher didn't show any signs of being upset. “Come on, Miss Kyrre! The best way to remove this blockage is by getting used to casting spells. Even if you never use the Knockback Jinx outside this classroom, I'm sure the practice can be useful to you.”

Knowing better than arguing against the teacher's decision, Elsa raised her wand. He had reminded her before that she needed the desire to hit the person with her magic, which was one of the fundamentals of any spell cast on another person. 

There was nothing the princess  _ dreaded  _ more than hitting someone with magic, however, and there was no way she would change her mindset to pass a class. More than keeping her parents and country proud, she wanted to keep everyone safe. So, as she repeated the spiral motion, she focused on the only thing she felt comfortable thinking at that moment: the eagerness to finish the class. “Flipendo!”

The fact that nothing had come out from her wand didn't discourage Professor Scamander, who asked the princess to repeat the exercise several times afterwards. He kept giving her advice, suggesting new intonations or stances, which weren't causing the girl to become more and more exhausted and impatient. Clearly, the desire to finish the exercise wasn't enough when she had no wish to hit its target with her magic.

In the event of her irritation, remembering her old mantra – _conceal it!_ – was becoming harder. “ _Flipendo!_ ” Elsa enunciated over and over again with growing passion, frowning in concentration and clenching her teeth in the enormous effort of keeping her magic inside. 

If one asked her later, the princess wouldn't know how to explain the reason why she was growing so reckless. It could have been the focus she was putting on the  _ desire  _ to hit the man in front of her with the spell. Or, perhaps, she was growing more comfortable in Hogwarts and with her friends than she had expected, causing her to lower her guard. It could be, even, the result of her confidence in her professors' skills. Most likely, however, the girl was just too exhausted after weeks on a roll in a constant state of alert and, on the event of all the aforementioned, unconsciously allowed herself to lapse. 

Whatever the reason was, something inside of Elsa snapped when she heard herself crying out the incantation one last time – her voice, in exasperation and impatience, louder than it had been ever since before the accident with Anna. Like expiring air after holding it in for a long time, Elsa was washed by relief as the storm inside her raged free. 

Ice spread fast from her fingers to the tip of her fingers and throughout the length of her wand, being compressed into one single streak of magic that was sent straight to Professor Scamander. Caught by surprise at his student's success, he didn't prepare his defence and only realized his mistake when his back hit the wall behind him and the cold spread through his chest. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya! How are you all in this crazy world we are living?
> 
> So... this happens: the very first conflict in this story. Brace yourself for what comes next ;)
> 
> Here's the ultimate proof that I will be using the lore from Frozen II, for those who have been wondering.
> 
> By the way, the music is the Norwegian version of All Is Found, sang by the amazing Christine Hals. I reckon that, in this fic's verse, the original version of the song should the Northern Sámi's (performed by Eva Jeanette Iversen in the movie). Since Elsa and Anna don't know anything about her mother's origins, though, I suppose Iduna would have translated it to Norwegian so the girls could understand the lyrics. 
> 
> I highly recommend you to listen to both of the version since they are awesome! They even have (unofficial) versions with the lyrics + the literal translation to English.
> 
> Anyway, thank you all who read, followed, sent kudos, and/or commented :)
> 
> Stay safe and healthy.


	9. The Storm Inside

The reality of what had happened didn't hit Elsa right away. As she watched Professor Scamander's body hit the wall behind him, the girl's first thought was on how she had made in a different manner to make the Knockback Jinx. Although relieved, she was wondering how this experience matched the one with the Wand-Lighting Charm.

Only after a few seconds had passed, when Elsa noticed that his eyes should be opened by then and— were his lips always so— blue? It was then that she understood what had occurred: she had hit the Professor with magic. _Her_ magic. Her _ice_ magic. Everything but herself and the lying figure in front of her seemed to vanish when the princess stepped toward him, wishing that he had only hit his head, hopeful that he would soon open his eyes.

Elsa didn't realize that some of her classmates' were yelling or when Charles Weasley — showing the braveness and fortitude of a true Gryffindor — rushed outside, saying he would find someone to help. She didn't perceive the snowflakes falling from the ceiling or heard that, when she dropped her wand, the fall was eased by the pile of snow she had inadvertently created right beneath her hands. 

The winds, raging around her and stopping anyone from coming closer to her or the professor, had passed unnoticed as well. The idea of questioning why nobody had approached her didn't cross her mind at that point. The only thing that mattered was making sure that Professor Scamander was fine and had _not_ been hit by her ice magic.

“P— Professor—?” Elsa's hand was only a few inches away from the man's chest when she called him. By then, however, the girl had lost her faith that it would all be fine. She could see well enough that his blue lips were covered in ice and his greying red hair was turning snow-white. 

Just like what had happened with Anna, three years before. His body was still and cold. _Frozen_.

In fear of what she would find in their eyes, the princess didn't look towards her friends and classmates. Instead, her gaze was kept glued on Professor Scamander's still figure, her arm stretched towards the man although she didn't dare to touch him. 

He was still breathing, she noticed, but couldn't bring herself to cry for help. As the storm raged around her, Elsa was herself _frozen_.

Then, something hit the back of the princess' neck and everything went dark.

Coming from afar, she heard an indistinct voice singing her a welcome and a warning.

**~~//~~**

The first thing she noticed was the sound of running water.

Water. It covered the largest part of the Earth's surface. Up to 60% of the human body was composed of water. Water spoke in a whisper to those who listened. _Den synger høyt om du går nær_.

That time, however, it didn't sound like a song. The sound reassembled, actually, one of a horse— or an old recollection. Perhaps, Elsa's very first pony Lif. Or, and the princess mentally laughed at her silliness, it was a Hippocampus, the mythological sea-horse. 

Despite her snow magic, Elsa had never felt as much affinity to water as she felt to air. 

Surely enough, the next thing Elsa noticed was the sound of the wind howling, albeit far away from her and in a somewhat indistinct manner. She couldn't feel it against her skin, which led the girl to believe she was somewhere protected from the weather.

The place she was. When she focused on that, Elsa realized she was lying somewhere soft, warm, and _dry_ ; comfortable. _Where_ was she?

Since darkness surrounded her, preventing her from seeing, the princess could only rely on sounds and smell to identify what was around her. 

_Det lukter regn_. Considering the sounds of running water and the howling of the wind, the realization that it was raining didn't come as a surprise to Elsa. As she was absorbing the knowledge, something else came into the girl's hearing range: voices.

“And Dumbledore was _forced_ to take her down? Unbelievable!” Elsa was sure she had heard that voice before, although she couldn't quite remember where. 

“I wouldn't have believed myself if I hadn't witnessed it,” a female voice responded, sounding quite exasperated and— was that annoyance?

“But she can't be more than 12!” The first voice — as well female, Elsa realized — argued.

“Quite astonishing, indeed,” a third, male voice replied. “Dumbledore didn't tell _us_ her magic was so powerful.”

“Perhaps he wasn't himself aware,” the first voice pondered, although even Elsa was able to notice that the person didn't believe her own words. “It makes even more imperative that she starts learning how to use it. Have you had any progress in your investigations, Filius?”

“Well, Tempestarii are fairly rare, but there must be at least a handful of them alive today,” Filius, the owner of the third voice, sounded quite disturbed at his own words. “It would have been easy to just put her in touch with another Tempestarii, but Dumbledore is adamant that we wait— that her magic _feels_ different from it.”

“After what I've seen today, I can certainly believe that,” the second voice replied. 

“Truth or not, a _feeling_ isn't enough to give me a direction from where to start my investigations,” the man answered. “I've been in touch with Professor Berwick, the Head of the Charms Department from Ilvermorny and a Tempestarii himself. He doesn't quite understand why Dumbledore doesn't want him— or another Tempestarii involved.”

There were a few moments of silence in which the trio seemed to be considering Filius' words. Understanding that they had been talking about her, Elsa tried to remember where she was and what had happened. 

“I suppose you are going to write to him again, after today's incident” the second female voice finally replied. 

_Professor McGonagall is talking about me to Professor Flitwick and—_ , Elsa realized she didn't quite remember who was the third person in the room, even though she was sure she knew she had heard that voice before.

Elsa opened her eyes when she noticed that the reason her surroundings had been so dark was that they had been closed, but regretted the gesture when she was blinded by the intensity of the light in the room. 

Either because of the groan she gave or the way she moved her arm to cover her eyes, the adults noticed that the princess was awake and their steps drew closer. “How are you feeling, dear?” It was the woman she couldn't quite remember who first addressed her.

The princess moved her arm away and blinked a few times before the room came into focus. She breathed deeply when she noticed she was lying on the Hogwarts' Hospital Wing, surrounded by Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, who wore twin expressions of concern.

“I— I am fine, I think—?” Elsa brought her hand to her forehead, pressing the place between her eyebrows with the tip of her thumb. How did she end up in the Hospital Wing? She didn't feel sick, only confused. “W— what happened?”

Elsa could see by the look the three adults exchanged that, for an unknown reason, they were feeling conflicted about her question. The girl forced her brain, trying to recall what _had_ happened before she passed out, but she seemed to be suffering a level of amnesia. Slowly, the girl rose to a sitting position.

The last thing she could recall was having lunch with her friends at the kitchen, singing the lullaby her mother had taught her about Ahtohallan and watching them plan a visit to the river. Then— she supposed they had Defense Against the Dark Arts since it had been Thursday. 

“I don't know how much you remember, but there was an accident with Professor Scamander earlier this afternoon.” Professor McGonagall was frowning as she spoke and, at the feeling of the room's temperature dropping, added with severity, “Miss Kyrre, _please_ ; nobody was hurt and all damage has already been fixed.”

At last, triggered by Professor McGonagall's words, her memories were coming back little by little. She had been careless when they were practising the Knockback Jinx and ended up hitting Professor Scamander's chest. Elsa noticed that each of the adults were tense, but there seemed to be no signs of sorrow or anger, which meant the Defense teacher was probably fine. “So— Professor Scamander— is he okay?”

“So, you _do_ remember,” since the Transfiguration teacher sounded somewhat relieved, Elsa decided not to correct her. After a brief pause, while she was considering her words, the teacher proceeded, “yes, Professor Dumbledore was able to reanimate him in a matter of seconds. He took a glass of Pepper-Up Potion to counter the remaining side-effects of your magic since he was determined to teach his next class— we were confident the effects would pass anyway in a few hours, even without the potion.”

Elsa was washed by relief and, as a consequence, exhaustion. Her magic wasn't lethal, after all. For once, she didn't care about her posture, allowing her body to fall on the bed in an ungracious manner. “I'm glad,” the girl whispered. She hadn't quite forgotten the exchange she had overheard before, but it seemed unimportant in comparison to the revelation that her powers _could_ be countered. 

After a moment of silence in which the two teachers exchanged a look Elsa couldn't quite read, Madam Pomfrey spoke, “well, Miss Kyrre, since there are no lingering effects of the accident on you, you are free to go when you feel ready.”

“Oh— okay—” Elsa blinked a few times, trying to wash the exhaustion from her mind. The girl looked towards the window to notice that it was raining heavily outside, making it hard to figure out the exact time. 

“It's about 7 p.m.” Professor McGonagall responded, reading her thoughts through her actions. “You might be able to have dinner at the Great Hall if you leave in the next hour.”

Elsa swallowed hard at the thought of facing the Great Hall at such a busy hour. Unless one or both of the teachers insisted on accompanying her, however, the girl knew she would be able to sneak into the kitchens before curfew. 

“Actually— I am sorry I didn't have the opportunity to speak to you before, Poppy— I was talking to Professor Sprout earlier and she mentioned she'd come later tonight to speak with Miss Kyrre,” Flitwick interrupted Elsa's thoughts before she could start panicking. His next words were directed to Elsa, “while I am sure you are eager to get out of bed, Professor Sprout asked you to stay here for a few more hours.”

Elsa couldn't help but sigh, making the man smile in amusement and the two women frown. Flushing in shame of her own rude behaviour, the princess directed her eyes towards the nurse, “I can wait here, if that is fine by Madam Pomfrey.”

The woman's frown vanished, although her expression remained somewhat severe. “As long as you don't cause any disturbance if another student comes to see me, I can't see why not.”

Madam Pomfrey kept her eyes on the princess for a few seconds after she nodded in agreement, as if to make sure she was speaking the truth. Professor McGonagall interrupted their silent exchange by cleaning her throat, “very well. Since it's been already decided, there are some pressing matters I'd prefer taking care of tonight. If you excuse me.” 

“Yes, yes. I suppose I should go as well,” Flitwick replied right away before turning to Elsa. “I'd still like to take a look at your wand and I imagine you would like to know what you missed from today's class. What about we meet tomorrow, one hour before the first period?”

Elsa frowned but nodded again in agreement. She had many questions regarding the conversation she had overheard and had been hoping to address them later that night. However, since the professors had other matters to attend to, postponing her inquirings to the next day was an acceptable alternative.

“Jolly good,” the Professor's happiness was so genuine that Elsa felt the corner of her lips turning up. “A good night to you, then, Miss Kyrre?”

“Yes, sir,” she replied quickly and turned to Professor McGonagall, “ma'am. Good night.”

“Good night, Miss Kyrre,” the Transfiguration teacher studied Elsa for a few seconds before turning away and leaving, followed by Professor Flitwick. 

Seeing her colleagues walking away, Madam Pomfrey flicked her wand and a plate of food was materialized on the nightstand right beside Elsa's bed. “You must be hungry, Miss Kyrre. Eat at your heart's content, but try not making much of a mess, please.” 

Although Elsa still felt too exhausted to eat, she nodded. In truth, she just wanted to try figuring out what had happened since, while she could recall pieces of what had happened, some blank spaces needed to be filled. Before the nurse could walk away to her office, Elsa called her, “why am I on the Hospital Wing, ma'am? Did I hurt myself?”

Madam Pomfrey stopped and turned to look at Elsa to notice the girl was still lying on her bed, the plate on her nightstand untouched. Frowning in concern, the nurse approached her bed again. “Are you feeling something off, Miss Kyrre?”

“I am fine, I think,” albeit her speech was slow, Elsa replied right away. “But I can't recall exactly what happened before.”

The nurse took out her wand and mumbled a few words, causing the tip to lighten. As she pointed it towards Elsa, the girl felt a sudden wave of warmth travelling through her body. 

“Well, you are in perfect health,” Madam Pomfrey said after a few seconds and, as the light extinguished, the princess felt the warmth fading as well. “Professor Dumbledore was forced to stun you to be able to approach you and Professor Scamander, but you ended up hitting your head while you were falling,” the nurse explained as she slipped her wand back into her coat's pocket.

“Oh,” that was all Elsa could answer. That was what the adults were talking right after she woke up: how much trouble even Dumbledore had to control her magic. That notion was troublesome. “I think— I would like to get some rest first, if that is fine.”

While Madam Pomfrey still seemed to be worried, she just replied, “Very well, I will leave some food there for when you are ready to eat and the door of my office open. There's no sign of a concussion or magical exhaustion, but if you feel any dizziness or nausea, call me.”

Elsa nodded and, covering her eyes with her arm again, tried to ease her mind back to sleep. In truth, while she felt tired, that wasn't the reason she had asked to rest first was to avoid eating. In her current state of anxiety, even thinking about food was unbearable.

Trying to keep her mind blank and control her breathing by focusing on the howling of the wind, she fell on a state of half-asleep, in which hazy dreams blended with reality. The sound of the storm outside turning into a chanting that felt somewhat familiar even though she was sure she had never heard before.

Her mind slowly tuned reality back with the sound of approaching footsteps. “Is she _still_ asleep?” Someone asked, seeming simultaneously close and far, far away.

“She was awake for a few minutes when Filius and Minerva came to see her, but fell asleep right after,” the second voice, Elsa recalled, belonged to the nurse.

“Is she well?” _Professor Sprout_ , the princess realized.

“The diagnostic spells show no injuries or illness,” the nurse was confident as she replied.

“Jeg er—” the princess started saying, her voice weak and rough, but interrupted herself when she realized she was speaking in Norwegian. “I am fine.”

The girl opened her eyes when she felt a wave of warmth that she realized to be caused by the diagnostic spell that Madam Pomfrey had referred to before. 

Elsa felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Professor Sprout's worried gaze. Although she was looking at the princess, the teacher once again directed her question to Madam Pomfrey. “Magical exhaustion, perhaps?”

“There are no traces of that, either. It's just the _regular_ physical exhaustion,” the nurse concluded as the feeling of warmth once again faded. “I suggest she spends the night, though. Just to be safe.”

“Very well,” the professor removed her hand and, with a flick of her wand, conjured a chair. 

“Can't this wait, Pomona?” The nurse replied. 

“I'm afraid not,” Elsa noticed Professor Sprout's tone was apologetic. “She needs time to process this before going back to her classes and her friends.”

The words caused Elsa to suddenly feel very awake. “They— they know?” It was a stupid question she knew the answer for. Worried about Professor Scamander, she hadn't considered the fact that all of her classmates had seen her magic in its most dangerous form. Now, however, the reality seemed obvious.

Sighing in defeat, the nurse excused herself. “I will leave you to it, then,” she spoke before walking back to her office.

“Professor?” Ignoring her body's protest as she sat up, Elsa asked again once the nurse disappeared behind her office's door. Her voice, however, was firmer than before.

“Yes, Elsa. They know about your snow magic,” the teacher replied with a sigh. “As I've been telling you, it was a matter of time before they found out.”

Elsa swallowed hard, unsure of what question to ask first. “Are they—?” Scared? Angry? She didn't know which she dreaded more to know the answer. Unbeknown to the princess, soft snow started falling around her.

“They were surprised and had many questions,” Professor Sprout answered even though she hadn't voiced her question. Elsa took a look at the teacher to notice she, herself, seemed to be exhausted.

“Weren't they scared?” The princess asked, surprised.

When Professor Sprout looked at her, Elsa saw she was hesitating. “Some Gryffindors were— apprehensive at first,” the teacher decided to be truthful after realizing that the girl had noticed her reluctance. “You must understand that your display of magic was impressive.”

Some _Gryffindors_ . Not her Hufflepuffs classmates. “No _one_ from Hufflepuff, though?” The snow surrounding the princess ceased to fall as her heart was filled with warmth and relief. Her friends weren't scared of her.

Professor Sprout smiled softly, “none at all. They know _you_ well enough to understand you would never hurt them.” 

“Not _willingly_ ,” Elsa felt compelled to add.

“That was a point one of the Gryffindors raised, indeed,” the teacher confessed, looking straight into the girl's eyes. “Miss Green made a very good point by telling them magic— even magical objects such as bludgers— have the potential to hurt someone and they were all here to learn how to avoid accidents.”

Elsa found no words to describe her surprise and _pride_ at hearing that Adie had defended her with a logical argument that not even the princess could counter. A smile spread through her lips and tension left her body.

“Adie isn't afraid,” she stated slowly, in a state of pure amazement.

“No Hufflepuff is. Although I confess Miss Tonks was a little upset you haven't told her you were born with a magical gift,” the teacher was at ease, amused even. “You should expect some venting.”

Elsa nodded, worried but still surprised. That didn't erase the fact that she could be dangerous, it didn't make the reality that she hurt Professor Scamander — and that Professor Dumbledore had had to stun her get things under control — go away. Yet, having her friends still by her side was a nice revelation.

“Professor, I can not quite recall what happened in the classroom,” Elsa asked, feeling a little braver at the knowledge that her friends had her back. “Madam Pomfrey told me Professor Dumbledore had to stun me—?”

“Indeed,” as Sprout agreed, Elsa could hear her curiosity in the way she spoke the word. “I wasn't there, but I heard from Professor McGonagall that nothing she tried could trespass the barrier you created.”

Elsa's eyes widened. “A barrier? I can not create something large enough to protect me.” At least, the princess figured, she couldn't _recall_ ever building something as big as a barrier — or a wall of any sorts. Even back when she used to play with Anna, all she could do was create a few small scenarios and dolls.

“A magical barrier, not a physical one,” the teacher explained with a single nod. “Professor McGonagall guessed that the storm you created around you was also working as a magical shield.” 

“I— I do not remember creating a storm. I can not—” Elsa shook her head, midway from astonishment to alarm. In her state of confusion, she couldn't find words to describe her thoughts, “I can make it snow, but I have never— _sometimes_ , my magic _feels_ like a storm— it feels— my skin feels like a wall between a storm and— and the world. But I have never created an actual storm.”

From the way her mouth remained slightly open and how her eyebrows shot up, it was clear that Professor Sprout was astonished beyond words. It took what it felt to be an eternity before the teacher replied, “have you ever told Professor Dumbledore that?”

“I— I have never told anyone,” Elsa lowered her eyes and clenched her hands into fists, worried. “Professor, do you— do you know what that means? Is it relevant?”

Despite her fears, Elsa looked up when Professor Sprout didn't answer right away. Noticing the girl's eyes on her, the teacher shook her head as if trying to whisk away her state of deep astonishment. “I have no clue, but the Headmaster might have some ideas. I will talk to him.” 

Elsa nodded one single time to show she had understood. “I overheard Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey—” her cheeks reddened in embarrassment for her snoopiness and she had to fight the urge to look away. “Professor Flitwick— he called people like me Tempestarii.”

Once again, Sprout took a moment to respond, but there was no sign of disapproval in her expression. “Yes, Tempestarii are witches and wizards born with the ability to manipulate the weather.”

“They said— Professor Dumbledore does not believe I am like a Tempestarii, though.” The princess watched Sprout with both uneasiness and curiosity.

“I'm afraid he hasn't said much about it, but I will speak to him.” 

Elsa nodded at the professor's promise. “I would like to talk to him— as well—” the princess' voice was, once again, rough and weak. In truth, she was scared of what Professor Dumbledore would tell her, afraid of the extent of her abnormality.

Professor Sprout, on the other hand, grinned at her request. “Of course, I am sure he will be happy to know you wish to speak with him,” the teacher's enthusiasm made Elsa, herself, smile. “I will mention to him and see if he can schedule a meeting. Meanwhile, I suggest you talk to your friends and try working on your fears.”

The girl nodded in response, frowning in concern. Even though she was soothed by the knowledge that her friends knew about her magic and would never judge her, the reality of confiding in them, exposing the ugliness of her skills and her feelings still caused her a level of discomfort. 

“Good girl,” the princess felt a hand on the top of her head and looked up to see that Sprout had stood up and was now smiling at her. “Now, get some food in your system and a good night of sleep. If you feel something wrong, don't hesitate before calling Madam Pomfrey.”

“Yes, ma'am,” the girl lowered her eyes again, breathing out slowly in an attempt to control her uneasiness. “Good night.”

The teacher retreated her hand. “It will be fine, dear,” the teacher promised before walking away and leaving the room. Elsa only raised her head once she heard the door being closed. Nauseated by her anxiety, she didn't even consider the possibility of eating before lying down once again. 

Luckily, she was so exhausted that, ignoring her concerns, she promptly fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> You will notice that some tags are changed. I actually did it because I decided to divide the fic into a series.
> 
> Therefore, what you are seeing here is going to be Years 1 to 3 at Hogwarts. The next fic will cover Years 4 to 7. Then at least one more for the years after Hogwarts. 
> 
> In between these, I will add some short spin-offs. The first one, "True Colors", is already up and will be consisted of 7 chapters focused on Tonks' life before Hogwarts. 
> 
> "Den synger høyt om du går nær" means "it sings aloud if you walk close".  
> "Det lukter regn" means "it's smelling like rain".  
> "Jeg er" means "I am".
> 
> See you all soon, hopefully. 
> 
> Stay healthy and safe :)


	10. The Break of Dawn

The only difference between spending the night in the Hospital Wing and the dorms was that, instead of waking up to the chatting of the other Hufflepuff girls, it was the sound of the nurse's moving around that dragged Elsa from her sleep. 

The princess remained under the sheets for longer than usual, listening to the chirping of the birds on the other side of the window and holding onto feelings of softness and warmth. Only when Madam Pomfrey called her name, Elsa stirred and opened her eyes. 

“Good morning, dear,” the nurse greeted with a smile once she noticed the girl was awake. “There's a note from Professor Dumbledore on the nightstand.” 

The words served to wipe the last remainders of sleep from Elsa's system and, fully awake at sudden, the girl sat straight and grabbed the piece of parchment. 

> _ Dear Elsa, _
> 
> _ Professor Sprout spoke to me of your request to meet with me. I would be glad to have my morning assignments interrupted, at your earliest convenience. _
> 
> _ I have spoken to Professor Flitwick, who agreed to have his meeting with you postponed to this afternoon, right after the last period. _
> 
> _ Sincerely, _
> 
> _ Professor Albus Dumbledore _
> 
> _ P.S.: The Gargoyle guarding my office's entrance responds to the password “Sugar Quill”. _

Feeling a now-familiar warmth spreading through her body, Elsa raised her eyes from the note to see that Madam Pomfrey was, once again, casting the spell that determined if there was something wrong with her. The nurse lowered her wand and sent a reassuring smile to Elsa, “perfectly healthy, it seems. How are you feeling this morning?”

Since the questions that were raised on the previous night started coming back at full strength, Elsa couldn't answer with a smile of her own. Instead, the girl swallowed hard in response, “I am fine, ma'am, thank you.”

The nurse kept her eyes on Elsa for a few seconds longer, studying her features. Then, finally, she flicked her wand to conjure a plate of food and, urging the princess to eat something before the meeting with the Headmaster, walked away to her office.

Elsa had no trouble doing as Madam Pomfrey asked her since her hunger finally caught up with the fact that more than twelve hours had passed since her last meal. Remembering her past experiences ingesting too much food after a long period with an empty stomach, she ate a light meal composed of milk, a few toasts, and some cereal.

After an uneventful breakfast and a quick shower in the bathroom designed for the in-patients, Elsa got her backpack and approached Madam Pomfrey to inform the nurse that she would be going and ask for directions to the Headmaster's office. 

By that time, the princess was having trouble ignoring the fact that she was about to go back to her routine, which meant she soon would be required to answer questions from her friends and other classmates. What would they say about her magic? They would certainly have many questions even if they weren't scared or angry at her. 

The girl was walking out of the Hospital Wing when she heard her name being called and saw her friends running toward her as if her thoughts had summoned them. Before Elsa was able to process the sight in front of her, Adie engulfed her in a tight hug, followed by a hesitant Adam. 

“You got everyone worried, you know?!” An exasperated and surprisingly emotional Tonks declared from somewhere close, for once not trying to keep the others from being too touchy with Elsa. The princess, however, was still too astonished by her friends' sudden appearance to react. When Elsa realised she was being hugged, they were already pulling away. 

“How  _ are  _ you?” Adam asked quickly as both Adie and Tonks opened her mouths with twin expressions of anger. 

“I'm— fine. Breakfast— huh— should you not— having breakfast?” Elsa added as fast as she could in a frivolous attempt to keep the topic neutral since she knew that both Tonks and Adie often got loud when they were angry. The last thing she wanted was to have Madam Pomfrey coming out to yell at them for making too much noise. 

“We w—” 

Adam's attempt to answer Elsa was interrupted by a furious red-haired Metamorphmagus, “how  _ could  _ you hide your powers from  _ me _ ?!” 

The princess flushed at Tonks' straight-forward question. Before she could come up with an answer, though, Adie corrected her friend, “how could hide it from  _ us _ ?”

“Yes, but that's different. Elsa should have told you and Adam because you are her  _ friends _ , but she should have told _ me  _ because we are the same.” It was clear that the two girls had already had that argument as Adam rolled his eyes, although he didn't make any comment.

“Tonks, our powers are  _ not  _ the same,” nervous, the princess interrupted her two friends before their bicker escalated. She didn't want to talk about her magic but knew it was unavoidable and better gotten out of the way. “Your powers are harmless. Mine are— are dangerous.”

That did the trick to turn the trio's attention toward her. While Adie was confused, Adam looked at her with interest and curiosity. On the other hand, as if trying to prove that she  _ could  _ be dangerous, Tonks grew several inches taller and her hair a few shades darker in her anger.

“I mean— I did not— I—” Elsa stammered, suddenly conscious of the reason the Sorting Hat had never considered putting her in Gryffindor. While she knew Tonks would never hurt her, Elsa was terrified of the prospect of losing her friend. “My powers— they can—  _ have  _ hurt— they can— potentially— kill.”

Elsa averted her eyes to the ground in shame of her actions toward Anna and fear of Tonks' rejection and animosity. She didn't know what the teachers had told the others, but the silence that followed her statement signalled that they hadn't talked about the accident with Anna and its consequences. 

“We know you wouldn't hurt anyone,” Adam's voice was soft in his attempt to comfort her.

“Willingly,” Elsa completed bitterly, remembering that she had said something similar to Professor Sprout on the previous night. “I have very little control, and it is getting stronger.”

“Stronger than yesterday?” Elsa looked up when she heard astonishment and delight in Adie's voice. The princess' horror at her friend's wonder must have been obvious because the girl shrugged, “what?! You were impressive.” 

“That is my point,” Elsa exclaimed in horror at the sight of wonder in her friend's face, “I can't control them, which means I can hurt someone by accident.”

“And?” Adie dismissed her, annoyed. “We're all here to learn to control our magic, aren't we? I exploded my bed when I was five because I didn't want to go to bed. Tonks put half of her textbooks on fire to avoid doing her math homework. Adam— well, he didn't do anything fun since he's boring, but you know what I mean!”

“Hey!” Adam feigned a protest, causing Adie to chuckle and Tonks' anger to start fading as she smirked. Elsa, on the other hand, frowned at the comparison with the small outburst of accidental magic in her friends' childhood, recalling the discussion she had had with Professor Flitwick about wandless magic.

“Adie is right, your powers aren't more dangerous than any other type of magic. Even if you lose control over them, there's a lot of people around who can fix things,” Tonks said, calmer than before. “And yeah, I suppose morphing isn't dangerous in the  _ same  _ way that your powers, but they can become a headache when I am around muggles and— well— it's difficult— not knowing your true appearance.” 

Elsa's eyes widened at the Metamorph's confession. While Tonks had spoken before of her troubles around muggles and about not having any standard features, it was the first time that the girl talked about her powers in such a non-enthusiastic way. Sending a glance at her two other friends, she noticed she wasn't the only one who was surprised.

“We should head to the kitchens. Get some breakfast before class,” the Metamorph sent an annoyed gaze toward Elsa that told her she hadn't fully forgiven the girl for hiding her powers from her. The princess swallowed hard at the girl's reaction and clenched her hands in an attempt to keep the ice from spreading. Did she lose Tonks' friendship?

One part of her wanted to follow her friends and try making amends, the other wanted to curl on a corner of her dorm and cry her problems away. The Headmaster, however, was waiting for her. “I— I am sorry, I— I have a meeting— with Professor Dumbledore,” Elsa clenched her hands harder when she felt the three pairs of eyes on her.

“Are you in trouble?” Adam asked, worried. “Sprout told us they won't punish you since it was an accident.” 

“No, I asked for the meeting. I will tell you later, I promise,” Elsa added quickly as all her three friends opened their mouths to ask more questions. “It's a long story, and Herbology starts about one hour from now.”

“Fine! But you better tell us everything this time, ” Tonks was the first to respond, before turning away and marching toward the kitchen. Adie rolled her eyes and sent Elsa an apologetic gaze before rushing after the Metamorph.

“Huh— see you in class then?” Adam bit his lip, worried. 

“See you,” Elsa nodded, trying to sound more confident than she was. In truth, although McGonagall's warning about her attendance still ringed in her ears even after two months, the impulse of hiding away was still present.

With a last glance at Elsa, however, Adam ran to catch up with the two girls. The princess remained still for a few seconds, considering the option of hiding or rushing after her friends, before walking away towards the Headmaster's office.

It could have been worse, Elsa tried to convince herself. Adam wasn't upset, and Adie seemed to be more curious than mad. Tonks was the only one who was angry, which was scary, although not to the point of utter despair since the Metamorph never seemed to be one to hold a grudge. Everything would be alright in time. Right?

* * *

Even though she was distracted by her thoughts, Elsa had no trouble following Madam Pomfrey's directions to the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore had warned her to say a password to a Gargoyle at the entrance, but the princess was surprised to see the full-sized sculpture standing right in front of the spiral stair that led there. 

“Sugar Quill,” Elsa told the Gargoyle quickly, wondering if it was supposed to use its sharp fangs and claws to hurt whoever tried to force their way inside. She didn't know why a Headmaster's office would have to be guarded by such heavy security but wasn't about to test it.

Hearing the words she had professed, though, the sculpture came to life and moved away. Elsa didn't hesitate before climbing the stairs since she was worried that Gargoyle changed its mind and attacked her.

Since she didn't wish to keep the Headmaster from his work for long, Elsa moved into the room as soon as she heard his answer to her knock. “Ah, Elsa. Good morning!” He smiled as the princess walked inside his office and pointed to the chair in front of his desk, “take a seat, please.”

Although Elsa mumbled a greeting in response to the professor's, she was too busy trying to understand what she was seeing to pay politeness much mind. It was the most curious room she had ever visited. Covering every inch of the walls that wasn't filled with bookshelves and cupboards, the paintings were watching her with attention. Several strange objects were laying here and there, and a beautiful, unfamiliar red bird was sleeping on a perch behind the Headmaster's desk. 

Trying to absorb all the information in that room, the princess took the seat Professor Dumbledore had pointed at her. While the objects in it were unlike anything she had ever seen, most of her curiosity was directed to the hundreds of paintings behind the Headmaster's desk; some watching them, some whispering, and others sleeping.

On his part, Dumbledore understood the source of her curiosity right away. “Ah, yes. What you see behind me are the portraits of some of the most outstanding Hogwarts Headmasters in the past thousands of years,” he told her with kindness. “They are here to assist the present Headmaster however they can.”

Elsa watched the pictures with ever-growing interest. “Are they— the real Headmasters?” 

The question sounded somewhat dumb even as she spoke it — indeed, some of the portraits even snorted in amusement —, although Professor Dumbledore seemed to be, himself, delighted to talk about it. “Not quite. They are wonderful copies who were taught by the people they portray how to behave like them.”

Unsure of how to answer the man, Elsa nodded. Professor Dumbledore leant against the back of his chair and watched the princess for a few seconds, waiting to see if the girl would make another comment on the topic or ask more questions.

“I confess I wasn't surprised when Professor Sprout came to me yesterday night with your request to meet me, although you will have to enlighten me on the exact topic of our conversation today,” the Headmaster finally told her once it became clear that she wouldn't persist inquiring about the paintings. 

The princess nodded again in response, this time considering her next words. There were so many questions she would like to ask that she didn't know where to start. With a sigh of resignation, she opted for the general comment that would allow Professor Dumbledore to choose how to approach the topic.

“Last night, when I woke in the Hospital Wing, I— accidentally overheard Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey talking. They implied you know—  _ some _ things about my powers.” It was risky since he might end up not answering the exact questions she had, but she had no idea how else to start the conversation. Even speaking in general, however, it had been difficult to find the right words to describe what had compelled her to request a meeting with the Headmaster.

On his part, Dumbledore betrayed no more than inquisitiveness as he pondered his following words. Thoughtful, the Headmaster leaned in, his elbows supporting his chin. “In truth, neither I nor the other Professors know much about your magic. It is unlike anything I have ever encountered, which is  _ something _ after several decades of teaching,” the man confessed with a gentle smile.

“Professor Flitwick said he believes I am a Tempestarius. But he said you don't—” Elsa gulped, worried she might get the Charms teacher into trouble if she revealed too much. Would Dumbledore scold the professor for saying such a thing in front of a student?

“I don't, indeed. Although your display of magic yesterday coincides with my theory, I confess it's just a guess based on an impression.” The princess' anxiety increased as Headmaster paused to consider his next words. “It is the difference between a request and an order. A Tempestarius bends the environment to their will, they have the power of command, compel. Your magic, on the other hand, speaks to the weather elements, never demands.”

“I— I don't understand,” Elsa replied, in shock as her mind tried to absorb what the Headmaster was telling her. The notion that the storms she created were not within her seemed absurd considering how she felt every time she accidentally used them, the way it felt like it was pouring from her.

“The wizardry we teach at Hogwarts, even the gifts we see among the students and the staff are just a few elements of magic,” Dumbledore explained, his blue eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. At that moment, Elsa could understand why the Headmaster was such a powerful wizard and respected teacher: he loved magic. 

“However,” the man continued after a brief pause. “There are countless other forms of magic in this world. We are aware of some, but the majority of them are obscure to us. Tempestarii are in touch with one of the latter: the weather elements. Somehow, they are born with the power to speak their language, much like a Parselmouth can speak the language of the snakes or a Legiliment can understand the language of the mind. Your magic, however, talks to the elements using another— a  _ friendlier  _ tone.”

Despite the man's attempt to further explain it, Elsa couldn't help but be confused. “Professor, I— when I lose control, it feels like— there is a  _ storm _ pouring from my skin. Whatever it is, it's not simply— reaching out, it's trying to break free with violence. And it's not  _ friendly _ ,” Elsa felt her hands growing rigid by ice as she was taken by the despair of not being able to express her feelings in words.

Professor Dumbledore's eyebrows raised during Elsa's speech and, once he finally recovered from the revelation, he remained in silence for a long time. He lowered his eyes and crossed his fingers in contemplation; when his eyes once again met hers, the princess noticed a sadness in them beyond anything she had ever seen, which further the despair in her. 

As snowflakes started dancing around them in a response to Elsa's growing uneasiness, the Headmaster looked sighed. “Elsa, I cannot tell with absolute certainty what is happening to you and I dare not to speculate, but repressing your magic is never a healthy thing. Since you are a powerful witch, the effects can be nothing short of catastrophic to you.” 

The grief in Dumbledore's voice left no room for Elsa to understand that he had seen people who suffered consequences of magic repression. In her struggle to stop her magic from creating a storm, however, the princess tried not to think much about. “Can it— my magic— can it kill me?”

Sighing, the Headmaster seemed to come to a conclusion before he answered her with honesty, “there are cases in which your magic turns into an independent force— supposedly a self-defence mechanism to protect one from whatever is forcing them to repress the magic. In such cases, unless the child is healed, the force might kill them.”

Elsa paled, her eyes tearing in fear, at the notion that her magic might murder her if she kept repressing it. A part of herself, one that she had nurtured for the past three years, wondered if it would be such a bad thing if she died. She had always known herself to be unfit to be Queen due to her timid and overall feeble personality. In addition to it, nobody had ever hidden from her that the Crown Princess wasn't supposed to be a witch since it hurt the power balance between magical and non-magical communities. 

After all, Dumbledore had told her that the Scandinavian Minister of Magic and the Headmaster of the Myrkorð School of Magic themselves had asked him to invite her to Hogwarts. The idea was to keep her detached from the Scandinavian wizarding world until she was old enough to deal with the complications of being a magical Crown Princess in a muggle government. Therefore, there was no doubt that her existence  _ was  _ a problem that would cease if he died. 

However, dead people couldn't learn Arithmancy or be kept updated about the latest scientific discoveries. They couldn't apologize to their friends or make amends with their siblings to correct mistakes from the past. They couldn't eat chocolate or smell books, enjoy a simple meal at the kitchen and the conversation with the house-elves. 

No, Elsa did not want to die at that point. She had too much to live for. In fear of awakening the force that would ultimately destroy her, the princess released the storm inside her at once in an outburst of ice and snow. Prepared for the reaction, however, Dumbledore created a shield to protect himself and his bird from the magic.

Panting at the explosion, Elsa carefully raised her eyes to study the damage she had done. Much to her surprise, however, the only lingering effects of her magic were the tiny snowflakes falling around them — none touching the Headmaster, his desk, his bird, or Elsa. 

“Impressive,” Dumbledore chuckled in amusement at the princess's astonished expression. “Well, I'm positive that, in time, we can help you move past your struggles. Even if we don't know much about your magic, your parents' stories and the conversation those who helped you when Anna was hurt assured me that it is controllable if you let go of your fears.”

“The people who helped us— do you mean the trolls?” Elsa watched the Headmaster in astonishment. Thinking about it, it made sense that he would contact the trolls considering that they were the ones who seemed to know her magic better. However, the thought had never crossed the princess' mind.

“Indeed. Quite interesting, they are. I believe the trolls were the ones who gave you your wand—?” Elsa only nodded in response to Dumbledore's question. The Headmaster waited a moment, but as she remained in silence, he resumed, “of course, every wand is unique, but ones like yours— crafted in both stone and wood— are particularly rare in the modern European wizarding world.”

“Professor Flitwick asked me to see it,” Elsa told him. While the princess didn't know the reason why the professor wanted to take a look at her wand, she had been hoping that he would be able to understand how it affected her magic.

“It is an interesting object. I've heard the other students have taken quite an interest in it as well,” the Headmaster agreed, before moving on from the subject. “Now, Professor Flitwick told me that you have been doing some extra reading—”

Albeit surprised at the sudden change in the subject, Elsa nodded, “he gave me a book about the importance of Intent in spells. And, before that, something about wandless magic. Also, one about a study on the most common magical gifts found in Hogwarts' history, then the diary of a Metamorphmagus, and a book about the role of Elementals in druidic practices.”

Since the Headmaster didn't express any surprise at the revelation, Elsa figured that Professor Flitwick had told him which books he had lent to her. “Yes, he has been trying to instruct you on subjects that might interest you as well as give you an insight into his own research.”

Elsa's eyes widened at Professor Dumbledore's words. So, the Charms teacher gave her the books he had been using in his research. The notion that he would allow her to read the same material he was studying astonished her. “Does he trust me enough to have a say in his studies?”

“Of course. Being your magic, you have an insight he doesn't. He hopes you might be able to recognize things that he has no means to.” Professor Dumbledore's smile was one of amusement when he raised his wand, “on that note—”

Elsa was surprised when he flicked it and three volumes flew from the shelves around them, forming a pile on his desk, right in front of her. The book on top was a small volume titled “The Awakening of Magical Awareness Through Meditation”, by Therese Marquise; then, right beneath it, there was a thick book written by Edward Rudd, “The Fundamentals of Weather Magic”; and, finally, another small one called “Magisk Samfunn i Skandinaviske Land”, by Ildrid Nilsen.

In astonishment, Elsa kept her eyes on the book at the bottom, “this book— it's written in Norwegian.”

“I thought you'd like to know more about the Scandinavian wizarding society,” Dumbledore replied. “Magic is always magic, but I've learned that certain aspects are, sometimes, regional or genetic. You may find something you can relate to.”

Elsa gazed at the book for a little longer before raising her head to meet Professor Dumbledore's eyes. While it was natural for a teacher to lend her books, the princess felt strange about receiving the volumes from the Headmaster's collection. “Are you lending me these books?”

The Headmaster's giggled to himself — the sound coming from his lips astonished Elsa even further — before responding, “I thought it was time to take a more— active role in your education.” Leaning in to face the princess from closer, he explained, “I believe the title of Mr Rudd's book is enough for you to understand why it may interest you. As for Miss Marquise's— meditation is a useful skill for both magical and non-magical people since it helps to clear your mind from your emotions.”

While Elsa was surprised at finding a book in her native language in the Headmaster's office, it wasn't difficult for her to understand why she had chosen the other two volumes. The princess hadn't expected that he would propose meditation to help her deal with her anxiety, but she didn't know much about the practice in the first place. At least, it would be informative.

“Now,” Professor Dumbledore continued as it became clear that Elsa wouldn't say anything. “I suggest we schedule another meeting after the Christmas break so you can share your thoughts on these books. What do you think?”

“Do you— want to teach me in person?” The princess asked, once again surprised. In the past two months at Hogwarts, she hadn't heard before of the Headmaster teaching students in person. Granted, there was much she didn't know about the man's past as an educator.

“Indeed, although I'm afraid it will be more of a— guided independent research on your end. Unfortunately, I do not have time to offer you a consistent schedule,” Professor Dumbledore's smile grew sadder and he sighed. “You should study these books and practice meditation at least once a day. If you have doubts, you can either question Professor Flitwick or ask to see me again.”

From the tone of the Headmaster's voice, Elsa realized she was being dismissed. So, she picked the books in front of her. “Thank you for your time and the books, sir,” the princess raised from her seat. Then, in a gesture that she had learned to offer only to ones in a higher political status, she curved her back slightly and bent her neck, looking at the ground. Not for the first time, she realized that even a princess was turned into a subject in her teacher's presence.

* * *

Even though she arrived at the greenhouse ten minutes before the beginning of the class, Elsa wasn't surprised when she saw that the only students in the classroom were her friends, who were sitting on their usual spot. One hour was, after all, more than enough time to have breakfast and, knowing Adie and Tonks, the princess was sure they would eager to question her about her powers and the meeting with Dumbledore.

Although she was taken aback by the possibility of being confronted once again by them and terrified about Tonks never forgiving her, the princess recalled her feelings at the discovery that magic repression could end up killing her. She remembered the discovery of the part of herself that didn't want to die at that moment, the one that hoped to make amends with Tonks, earn her forgiveness. 

With that recollection in mind, Elsa proceeded to take her usual seat next to the Metamorph after shyly greeting Professor Sprout.

“How did it go with Professor Dumbledore?” Adie asked as soon as Elsa was in earshot. Judging by the way Adam and Tonks had their eyes fixed on her , the princess didn't doubt that it would have been a matter of seconds before they asked if the blonde hadn't done it first.

“It was fine,” the princess replied, trying to decide what she could tell the others in the timespan before the class started. If she wanted to  _ earn  _ Tonks forgiveness, the first step was being sincere, but ten minutes wasn't enough to discuss everything the Headmaster had told her. “He has been researching my magic, but has not found much yet.”

As her friends pondered her answer, Elsa started taking her usual supplies out of her backpack. It was Tonks — and the princess was surprised at the lack of defiance in her voice — who broke their silence first, “what's he been looking for?”

“In essence, what kind of magic it is,” she hopped on her seat after placing her supplies on the table. “He says he has never seen something like it, so he is trying to find someone who has to understand how it works.”

“Why?” Adie asked right away, shrugging when three pairs of eyes looked at her in surprise, “I mean, why do you need to find someone who saw it when you can use it yourself?”

“Being born different is difficult, it's very  _ lonely _ . You grow up wanting to find people like you, someone to explain things to you. It's hard to learn everything by yourself,” Tonks jumped in her defence before the princess had the opportunity. The Metamorph spoke softly so Professor Sprout didn't hear it and, although she didn't blush, Elsa realized that she was a little embarrassed.

The other three remained in silence after Tonks' explanation, too surprised to react. Elsa was beginning to understand why the Metamorph was so upset about her secrecy and, although she still didn't think their situations were the same, the words had forced her to realize that there were similarities.

“I am sorry I didn't tell you, Tonks,” Elsa finally said quietly, forcing herself to look at her friend's eyes in an effort to show her that she had meant every word.

Although her features softened by the princess' words, Tonks didn't reply right away. She was robbed of the opportunity, however, as the remaining Hufflepuff boys entered the greenhouse and spotted Elsa. 

“What was  _ that  _ yesterday?” Christian Merrick asked in awe as the three boys approached the princess, who flushed and looked at her feet. “That piece of magic was  _ wicked _ !” 

Elsa had never enjoyed being in the centre of everyone's attention, but three years in isolation turned what used to be a slight discomfort into a feeling of trepidation.  _ One of the reasons papa wanted me to come to Hogwarts instead of hiring private tutors _ , the princess recalled.

“Yup,” Sullivan Rowan agreed, for once too caught up with the excitement about the topic to be shy around Tonks. “No one could imagine you had in you to knock out Professor Scamander. It was bloody insane!”

“Language, Mr Rowan,” Professor Sprout reprimanded, although she made no further effort to stop the conversation. As she caught amusement in the woman's voice, Elsa wondered why the teacher was having fun.

“Oops. Sorry, Professor,” the boy replied, making Adie, Tonks, and the other boys giggle. Yes, the situation seemed to have an entertaining side that Elsa was failing to grasp. 

The princess tried a smile, but her embarrassment and tension made the gesture feel forced on her lips. If discussing her magic with her friends was difficult, talking to her other classmates felt impossible. Yet, they were eager to find out more and, for once, Tonks was doing nothing to shield her.

“Hey Elsa, since you can create snow, we should have some snowball war during the weekend. 'Bet we can convince the Gryffindors to join in!” Christian proposed with a smirk and turned at Professor Sprout, “it's not against the rules, is it Professor?”

“As long as it's strictly outside the castle but within Hogwarts' grounds and it doesn't conflict with the classes or the curfew, I can't see why it is any different from other sports' clubs or teams,” the teacher's voice expressed her delight at the idea of such a use for Elsa's powers.

The girl was, on the other hand, terrified at the thought of being bound to a club or a team that required her to use her magic around the other students.  _ Save me _ , she tried to communicate as she looked towards Professor Sprout.

“However, while I am sure you have many ideas, Mr Merrick, the class will start in a few minutes. I suggest you take your seats to clear the way for when the rest of the class arrives,” the teacher offered, much to Elsa's relief. 

After sighing in disappointment at the professor's logic, Christian offered Elsa a laid-back smile, “we can figure out the details later, then?”

The princess swallowed hard at the trap set by her oblivious but well-intentioned classmate. She was saved from comment when Tonks punched the table to call the others' attention. For the first time that morning, there was no trace of anger or annoyance in Metamorph. Her bright pink hair and soft grey eyes, as well as her relaxed expression and body language, were a sign that she was back to her usual self.

“She hasn't even agreed on doing it. For Merlin's sake, Chris, give the girl some  _ time  _ to think about it!” Despite the reprimand in her words, Tonks had a smile on her lips that was an indication that she would join a snowball war if Elsa was comfortable with being the snow provider.

Albeit still worried about the prospect of having to perform magic around her classmates, the princess couldn't help but smile at the Metamorph as her actions were proof that their friendship, although shaken by Elsa's omission, was still solid. 

As the remaining Hufflepuff arrived right before a group of Gryffindors, the boys finally moved to clear the path to the students sitting at the back of the classroom. Tonks wrapped one of her arms around Elsa's shoulders. “I forgive you, you sneaky little weasel,” she joked and burst into laughter at the princess' confusion about the comparison of herself with the animal. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Sorry for the long waiting, writing Dumbledore is such a difficult task!!
> 
> The word “Myrkorð” is crafted by myself. It comes from a combination of the Old Norse words “norðr” (north) and “myrkr” (obscure). The word “orð” might also mean “word” or “message”, which creates an interesting meaning as well. The idea is not that the school is focused on dark magic, but that it is well-hidden in the far north. Since I’m not versed in Old Norse and am relying on the pages I found on Google, I have no idea if I am using it correctly.
> 
> “Magisk Samfunn i Skandinaviske Land” means “Magical Society in Scandinavian Countries”.
> 
> Thank you all who read, subscribed, bookmarked and/or sent kudos. Hope you liked this chapter. 
> 
> See you soon.


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